Oil prices rise after Hurricane Harvey as Irma heads to the Caribbean
Singapore/London — Oil prices rose on Wednesday as strong global refining margins and the re-opening of US Gulf Coast refineries provided a more bullish outlook after sharp drops due to Hurricane Harvey. Brent had gained 28c to $53.66 a barrel by 9.52am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 15c at $48.81. "Hurricane Harvey was bearish for crude and speculators went massively short with WTI, but now there is a reversal to positions pre-Harvey. Strong margins are helping underpin crude ... gas oil is at its highest point this year," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix said. Many refineries, pipelines and ports knocked out by Harvey 10 days ago are restarting. As of Tuesday, about 3.8-million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity, or 20% of the US total, was shut. This compares with 4.2-million bpd at the height of the storm. Focus was also being drawn to the category 5 storm, Hurricane Irma, which is barreling towards the Caribbean and Florida and could knock out o...
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