On Sunday, Tropical Storm Laura and Hurricane Marco shredded the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, forcing oil refiners to close more than 50% of the production platforms and pull workers out of offshore regions, which advanced the Oil rally. However, the prices were controlled by the concerns over further demand amid the pandemic restrictions and lockdown.
The Gulf of Mexico, which produces more than 17% of the total US oil and 5% of the US natural gas production, closed 45% of natural gas and 58% of offshore oil production on Sunday. The US WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude advanced 0.2% or 7 cents, reaching $42.41 per barrel and Britain’s Brent Crude futures gained 0.2%, or 8 cents, trading at $44.43 per barrel, on 12:40 AM GMT.
Earlier on Friday, both the oil measuring benchmarks slumped around 1% amid concerns over increasing crude supply and economic tensions.
Meanwhile, the corona pandemic is getting worst with 800,000 deaths reported on Saturday, as posted by Reuters, with primary cases in India, Brazil, and the US.
Besides, the OPEC+ group has decided to cut crude oil output to compensate the oversupply, which led record falling of oil prices in May earlier.