Oil started the week volatile as it was somehow strengthened by production outages in the United States after the damages of Hurricane Harvey. However, it remained under pressure by a downturn on the demand of crude, which was already expected. This is driven by shutdown of refineries at the Gulf of Mexico.
Global benchmark for oil prices Brent crude futures edged down as low as 0.4 percent or 22 cents to settle at $52.53 per barrel on the previous session. Meanwhile U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices added more than 17 cents to finish at $47.75 per barrel.
The hurricane badly hit the production of oil in the stateside but it still has the same time cut demand for crude oil from the battered industry of petroleum. This is the main reason why the volatility of the oil market had a mixed result.
Hurricane Harvey also knocked out about a quarter of the whole refining capacity of United States when it made a landfall along Louisiana and Gulf coast of Texas on the previous week. This caused a fuel gap like gasoline and a spike in prices which global traders have been having a hard time fill up.
Investors are also shifting their attention to the recent happenings at North Korea where the estranged nation conducted a powerful nuclear test which consists of a hydrogen bomb last weekend. This prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to threat the nation of cutting off trade with any country that does business with North Korea.