WTI & Brent consolidated Monday's gains.........>

OIL: WTI & Brent consolidated Monday's gains overnight. - Oil managed to advance

on Monday after coming under early pressure on the back of JODI estimates which

pointed to an increase in Saudi crude exports during July.

- Elsewhere reports suggested that the latest Genscape Cushing inventory

estimates pointed to a build of ~520K bbls.

- It also became apparent that the U.S. DOE has offered some 11mn bbls of sour

crude from the U.S. reserves, although upon closer inspection this looks like a

long scheduled release (planned allocation) as opposed to an extraordinary

measure.

- Participants now turn their focus to the weekly API crude inventory data, due

for release after hours today, with analysts exp. a headline crude draw of

1.08mn bbls in the weekly DoE inventory data due Wednesday.