(Traders are not the only ones cognizant of this beneficial energy news for the consumer and those with properly positioned puts.

Will any future significant attacks directed against the Saudi petroleum infrastructure trigger a spike of $5 to $7 in crude?

We may not have long to wait since the enemy has made it be known Persian Gulf based oil is their soft target of choice.

Is Arabia the next Iran)

NEW YORK, Jun 9th, 2004 (The Orlando Sentinel - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Crude futures fell to a six-week low as forecasts Tuesday pointed to increased supplies that could indicate a return to a more normal balance in the market.

The added supply could herald a turning point in a market roiled this year by fears stemming from growing global demand, terrorist attacks and U.S. refinery bottlenecks.

Tuesday's end-of-day crude and gasoline futures prices haven't been seen since late April, before a string of terrorist attacks targeted Western oil interests in the Middle East, setting prices on course to record highs.

Crude futures set for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $37.28 a barrel, down $1.38, led by losses in gasoline.

Gasoline futures for the same month fell 3.51 cents, or 2.9 percent, to settle at $1.1663 a gallon.

On London's International Petroleum Exchange, July Brent blend crude futures settled down 91 cents at $35.05 a barrel.

Traders credited much of Tuesday's sell-off to a second straight week of projected increases in U.S. commercial crude and refined-product inventories.

Plus, a monthly report from the federal Energy Information Administration predicted additional oil supplies from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries this summer likely would lead to a more normal market.

"The impact of increased supply from OPEC has been felt by the market," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president of Refco Energy Markets in New York.

Saudi Arabia has pledged to boost oil production to more than 9 million barrels a day in June, while the United Arab Emirates plans to raise its output by 400,000 barrels a day.

Meeting last week in Lebanon, OPEC members also said they would raise the group's oil-output ceiling by around 11 percent to 26 million barrels a day this summer.

"We are determined to bring down the price of oil to reasonable levels," said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Saudi leader Crown Prince Abdullah. "We have increased our production, we have increased quotas along with other OPEC countries to ensure that there are no shortages of crude oil."

Information from Bloomberg News and The Associated Press was used in this report

CHART:TFC Commodity Charts
Crude Oil (light, NYMEX)
Trading Month: Sept., 2004