Disorder in Oil markets as Hurricane Harvey hits US Petro Industry

Gasoline markets were without any direction on Monday as Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texan coast in US. Massive floods caused the gasoline prices to reach two-year highs as the storm knocked out numerous refineries and some crude production.

In Middle east; especially Libya, the Brent Futures went up caused by pipeline blockades.

According to Reuters, “Harvey came ashore over the weekend as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, killing at least two people, causing large-scale flooding, and forcing the closure of Houston port as well as several refineries.”

“The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday that Harvey was moving away from the coast but was expected to linger close to the shore through Tuesday, and that floods would spread from Texas eastward to Louisiana.”

“Texas is home to 5.6 million barrels of refining capacity per day, and Louisiana has 3.3 million barrels. Over 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity were estimated to be offline as a result of the storm.”

“Spot prices for U.S. gasoline futures surged 7 percent to a peak of $1.7799 per gallon, the highest level since late July 2015, before easing slightly to $1.7622 by 0358 GMT.”

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $47.70 a barrel, down 17 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.