WTI & Brent trade ~$0.50 above their............>

OIL: WTI & Brent trade ~$0.50 above their respective settlement levels at

writing.

- Crude has drawn support from the uptick in global equity markets as well as

weekend news flow, which revealed that a Yemeni drone attack hit the area which

contains Saudi Arabia's Shaybah oilfield (oil production of circa 1mn bbl bpd),

although the attack seemingly had no impact on production.

- Elsewhere, the Iranian tanker at the centre of the standoff between Tehran and

various Western nations seemingly left Gibraltar on Sunday night. This came

after Gibraltar knocked back a U.S. request to seize the Iranian vessel.

- Broader risk sentiment also supported crude in the final trading session of

last week, allowing a recovery in the wake of an OPEC oil market report induced

sell off in the middle of the session, as the cartel trimmed its 2019 oil demand

growth forecast and suggested that oil market fundamentals seem somewhat bearish

for the remainder of 2019.

- Also worth reminding that the latest Baker Hughes rig count data pointed to an

additional 6 active U.S. oil rigs in the latest round of weekly data.