The crude market announcments

- According to the International Herald Tribune, U.S. Senate Democrats, pushing to pass a broad energy bill next week, have developed a package that would take about $25 billion in tax breaks and other benefits from the oil industry and use the money for a vast expansion of renewable energy sources.

- According to Interfax citing a North Korean official, North Korea plans to seal the Yongbyon reactor in late July.

- Italy's Eni announced overnight that one of its Nigerian flowstations was attacker by Nigerian militants yesterday. Twenty-three Eni employees were unaccounted for following the attack. Note that, as a result of Nigerian attacks along with Venezuelan expropriations, the company's production fell by 13% during the first-quarter. There are no estimates as to what damage was incurred during the most recent attack.

- Tullow Oil in the UK announced overnight that it discovered oil at its Mahogany-1 exploration well near Ghana. Tullow encountered an oil column of 270 meters at the Mahogany-1 well. The company now anticipates that their reserves have reached targeted levels ahead of plan.

- South Korea and Japan recently announced an agreement to share their emergency petroleum stockpiles in the event of any supply disruptions.

- Saudi Aramco announced today that it plans to build a new 400K bpd capacity refinery in Ras Tanura in order to meet increasing demand. The refinery will provide fuel for domestic consumption, and is expected to be operational in 2012.

- According to the Sabah newspaper citing Russian Ambassador Ivanovski, Russian President Putin will look to form a strategic European oil supply partnership with Turkey when he visits the country next week.

- Royal Dutch Shell along with Exxon Mobil will convey their final arguments tomorrow on why they should be allowed to continue pumping natural gas from a wetlands area in the Netherlands. The area contains enough gas supplies to last for an estimated twenty years. Pumping currently faces opposition from four wildlife advocate and environmentalist groups.

- Weather derivatives currently forecast that the average temperature in the US will be 1.9 degrees above normal over the next 1 to 7 days, with temperatures in the Northeast 2.7 degrees above normal, and temperatures in the North-Central 3.1 degrees above normal.

- On the weather front, Accuweather wrote on its website that a cold front, accompanied by the threat of severe weather, will continue to press towards the East Coast through Tuesday. The front will sweep away summer's premature arrival, which encompassed most of the Eastern Seaboard Sunday.