The price of oil was down on Monday’s opening but still not that far from its highs last week. This is after U.S. refineries that have been knocked out by Hurricane Harvey were open again.
According to some analyst, the sentiment of the commodity market has been continuously improving after the released demand forecast from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). ANZ said on the same day that refineries in the United States reported a better than expected recovery from the recent Hurricane Harvey and Irma.
Looking on futures, international benchmark for oil prices outside the United States Brent crude lost as much as 4 cents to finish trading at $55.58 per barrel. Brent is still close from a five month high of more than $55.99 per barrel notched on the previous week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices edged down about 6 cents and settled $49.83 per barrel on the session. Just like Brent crude, WTI is also not that far from an almost three month high of over $50 per barrel touched for a short time last Friday.
Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico oil refineries are currently starting up after being battered by the previous hurricanes which knocked out the heart of the U.S. oil industry last three weeks.
According to energy service company Baker Hughes last Friday, energy firms in the stateside reduce seven oil rigs in the week until September 15, which sums about 749 since June.