Oil prices remain firm after a week of sharp gains

Oil prices remained firm on Friday after almost a week of sharp gains as Hurricane Irma moved towards Florida through the Carribean.

Irma is the second major hurricane to approach the United States in two weeks and has already killed 14, flattening whole islands. Hurricane Harvey shut a quarter of US refineries and 8% of US oil production.

Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of US oil drilling rigs declined by 3 to 756, the third drop in four weeks.

US West Texas Intermediate light crude oil settled down 3.28%, or USD 1.61, at USD 47.48.

Brent found some support from news that Saudi Arabia will cut crude oil allocations to its customers worldwide in October by 350,000 barrels per day (bpd).

US crude fell as a result of low refining activity following Harvey, which sharply reduced demand for crude oil.

Harvey’s impact was also felt in oil production. US oil output fell by almost 8% from 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd) to 8.8 million bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).


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