We have a two-sided market, which is fundamentally weak in the short-term due to inventories but in the long-term faces all this geopolitical risk.

It will be more of a political move on the part of OPEC to calm high oil prices.

Bearish (data) is widely expected and the market has already factored it in. But if it should show a recovery in demand, for example in gasoline, the market may rebound.

However, tension has relaxed a bit and the market came off.

The market has gone up so much and so quickly. This is a technical correction. This is just profit-taking ahead of the weekly statistics.

The market was only expecting an increase [in crude stocks] in the range of two million barrels but crude has been rising for the past five weeks.

(Increasing production) will be more of a political move on the part of OPEC to calm high oil prices.

Iran continues to hold the fire under oil despite current market fundamentals, and my guess is this will start heating up again.

Commodity-related funds remain in demand because the fundamentals remain the same — we have strong economic growth in Japan, the United States and China that is going to drive up demand, while spare refining capacity...

Last time, the market could handle uncertainty as there was a lot of slack but now because prices are so high, the market is not equipped to handle unplanned events.

The Iranian situation is kind of dropping into the background.

The products problems cannot be solved. One way to solve the products (supply) problem is imports from Europe or Asia.

Demand is so high and capacity is so low, we can go from comfortable to uncomfortable inventories within a month.

I can’t see why it should have rallied $2 and I think it’s coming back to reality — that the short-term fundamentals look oversupplied,

There is a high probability of further disruptions in Nigeria as we haven’t seen the end of the attacks.

Traders are now more concerned about the psychological impact of the hurricanes that has seriously caught American consumers, cutting back on consumption.

I don’t think the market is weak,

Even if there is a stock draw, unless it is substantially and unexpectedly high, I would not expect prices to go up above $60 as the near-term market is still heavily weighed down by high...

Immediate fundamentals look bearish, … Weather seems very mild and inventory levels are high.

If statistics show any signs of bullishness, prices will go higher. Technically, the market wants to test $65 a barrel.

In the short and medium term, there’s no crude oil problem because the U.S. government will release stocks and IEA will release stocks to cover that shortfall.

Only Saudi Arabia has surplus capacity, and if its oil flow should be disrupted, it could bring a hopeless situation.

The scary thing is that the hurricane season is not over yet… so I don’t see prices coming down.

This market is ready to blow. [Petrol] and geopolitical risks are driving the market and they both do not have easy solutions.

The market is a bit confused because the recent data showed a big build in gasoline inventory. But I think most people will realise that it’ll probably be not until next week that we see...

The market has been sold off after the Hurricane headed for Florida instead of the Gulf Coast. So oil production is not affected.

The short-term situation in the U.S. is not good. With the refinery turnaround season, products should be tight but crude imports are higher and there is warm weather.

It’s just profit-taking, the market needed to correct.

For now it’s off the radar screen.

If you look at statistics every week, there’s a drop in demand year-on-year. People are focusing on that.

It’s no secret that refineries are the problem. There wouldn’t be a problem if there was any slack in the system.

Though there seems to be a lot of crude around, the long-term view is bullish. The U.S. Northeast will get colder and people may be concerned with middle distillate supplies.

Iran’s nuclear plans will continue to pose a threat. It may shun foreign investment in its oil facilities.

It has a very high volatility and, short-term, there are plenty of inventories. However, the big concerns are Iran and Nigeria.

That’s the big question on everybody’s mind, how much this (high prices) affected the demand.

It is unknown how extensive the damage to the refineries is.

Iran is playing a smart game of brinkmanship, they are pushing as far into the edge as they can take this and then pulling back.

The market is highly sensitized to headlines that could affect supply. Anxiety over supplies and possible disruptions are the key drivers of price now. It’s hard to be bearish in a market like this. Levels...

The geopolitical tensions are still there, but the market is getting desensitized to it.

Statistics have shown demand was reduced on a year-on-year basis in September and October. Traders are concerned that they may end up seeing slower demand again in November.

If we get draws in gasoline inventories, that could turn the market around.

Overall big picture is the market is still strong,

The situation is unclear because output is still down in the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. refineries are having problems.

The market pauses here because everyone is very cautious about new data,

Most of the worst-case scenario has been built in to the price already, so we will get a week of consolidation until the real extent of the damage is known.

The market expects bearish inventories, with crude up by 1.5 million barrels, distillates down 1.7 million barrels and gasoline supplies unchanged.

Increasing concerns over supply shortages in the U.S because of the outages at refineries in the Gulf Coast and disruptions to refinery operations in France are giving support to the market,

The whole thing about Katrina ends up as a psychological shock. U.S. consumers back off after gasoline prices sky-rocketed.

It’s a crazy market. Prices look strong one week because of the draws (declines) in gasoline. If we get another big draw this week, the market will be even stronger.

It looks like the market just doesn’t want to go down. I think everybody is going to be watching stocks today.