New York — Oil futures eased on Thursday on a slightly bigger-than-expected US crude inventory build as the restart of US refiners after Hurricane Harvey was being countered by the threat of Hurricane Irma. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US weekly crude stocks increased 4.6-million barrels last week, topping analysts forecast of a 4.0-million barrel build in a Reuters poll. Reflecting the impact of Harvey, which hit the Gulf Coast on August 25, the EIA said US oil refinery utilisation rates slumped 16.9 percentage points to 79.7% last week, the lowest rate since 2010. US Gulf Coast utilisation rates dropped to 63.4%, the lowest rates since the EIA began collecting the data in 2010. "Refinery runs were cut as the storm approached; I expect this trend will continue in next week’s stats which will reflect the full storm impact on Texas Gulf Coast refining," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. Brent crude futures were down 16c, or 0.3%, ...
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