Thursday, as the United States crude inventories showed a tighter market, as well as the tropical storm Harvey that is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Friday and is now heading for oil producing facilities in the Gulf of Mexico; prices of oil remained firm. The international benchmark, Brent crude futures traded at $52.58 a barrel, which was up by 1 cent from their previous close. The United States West Texas Intermediate crude futures, on the other hand, were down by 4 cents and traded at $48.37 per barrel.
Both Brent and the United States West Texas Intermediate crude futures contracts have risen by approximately more than 1% on Wednesday, and the percentage was maintained by the possible supply commotions from the Gulf of Mexico tropical storm Harvey.
In accordance to this, Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta said that the United States market is going to be focused on Texas for the next few days as the tropical storm is expected to strengthen into a Category I hurricane by Friday; in which Sukrit Vijayakar also added that the operators in the area are already evacuating workers and began closing down platforms as a precaution.
In addition, according to the United States National Hurricane Center, the tropical storm: Harvey on Wednesday night was located on approximately 440 miles southeast of Port Mansfield, Texas and is traveling with wind speed of about 40 miles per hour.