Oil settles up as U.S. producers, refiners assess storm damage
Oil rose on Monday, lifted as U.S. Gulf Coast platforms, refineries and pipelines grappled with uncertainty on restart timelines after Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on the region.
Gains were capped as OPEC+ looked set to go ahead with a planned oil output increase.
Global benchmark Brent settled at $73.41 a barrel, up 71 cents or 0.98%. Brent touched a session high of $73.69, the highest since Aug. 2. U.S. crude futures rose 47 cents, or 0.68% to $69.21 a barrel.
Within 12 hours of coming ashore, Ida had weakened into a Category 1 hurricane, and has since dropped to tropical storm status. Hundreds of oil production platforms were evacuated ahead of the storm and nearly all offshore Gulf oil production, or 1.74 million barrels per day, was suspended.
OPEC+ meets on Wednesday to discuss a scheduled 400,000 bpd increase in its oil output, in what would be a further easing of the record output cuts made last year.
Reference: Reuters
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