The latest from the credit wars

--One clear beneficiary: the NYMEX. There are increasing reports from the market that traders are turning to NYMEX' ClearPort on-line clearinghouse to clear their trades. It costs money that you don't need to pony up if you do a deal in the over-the-counter market, but that cost now brings a NYMEX guarantee with it. Recent NYMEX data shows that daily volume has increased in recent days on ClearPort, the exchange's over-the-counter trading and clearing platform. From September 17-29, ClearPort volume was 4,463,449 contracts, up 1,872,838 contracts from the September 1-16 period.

-- In Europe, Platts reported that the high cost of working capital and the unwillingness or inability of financial institutions to loan significant amounts of cash is frustrating European oil traders and heavily weighing on liquidity. "Banks aren't crazy about lending money to each other," one source at an independent European oil trader said. "Bearing that in mind, how thrilled do you think they will be about lending money to me, an oil trader?" Interest rates being offered to traders are said to be in excess of 10%.

--This is a scary one: petroleum marketers in the US, already battered in some parts of the country by a loss of supply due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, are seeing their credit lines tightened. As Platts' Beth Evans reported Tuesday, the "worst-case scenario (is) the blocking of loans leading to shortages at the retail level. While no one has actually reported an outage tied to credit yet, it is a possibility, according to Gary Harris, executive vice president of the North Carolina Petroleum & Convenience Marketers Association. "You have to have a lot of credit to buy 8,000 gallons (a tanker load) of gasoline at a pop." Payment terms are usually "net 10," said Harris, meaning the buyer has just 10 days to pay the oil company for the product.