- Crude oil prices traded higher during the first half of European trading following gains in gasoline prices, which reached 8-month highs following reports of refinery shut downs, as well as the much greater than expected decline in weekly gasoline inventories posted on Wednesday. Ahead of the open in the US crude prices have began to give up gains made overnight as they drift towards the unchanged level.

- The EIA released its weekly natural gas inventory data yesterday, which showed that natural gas inventories rose less than expected by 23bcf to 1.59 trillion cubic feet.

- The BBC news reported overnight that North Korea??™s Pyongyang insists it will not start dismantling its nuclear programme, a condition of a recent international deal, until it has access to the money.  The dispute has delayed progress on the deal, and the first major deadline - for the North to shut its main reactor by Saturday - looks unlikely to be met.

- According to Interfax the Russian Energy Ministry raised the cost estimate for the Sakhalin-1 oil and natural gas development project to $17.8B, an increase of 4.7%.