Oil falls as US refineries shut down

NEW YORK:

Oil fell on Tuesday on expectations for demand to fall after Hurricane Ida shuttered refiners on the US Gulf Coast and as producing nations in OPEC+ geared up to meet on Wednesday with the United States calling for suppliers to pump more crude. Brent crude futures for October, due to expire on Tuesday, fell $0.39, or 0.5%, to $73.02 a barrel by 1508 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down $0.43, or 0.6%, at $68.78. Both benchmarks were on track for their first monthly loss since March but were still not far from their July highs, when Brent rose to its strongest since 2018 and US crude since 2014. Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in the United States on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, knocked out at least 94% of offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production and caused “catastrophic” damage to Louisiana’s grid.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2021.

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