MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher in midmorning Asia trade Sept. 13 on concerns about tight US supply in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and as Tropical Storm Nicholas is expected to begin moving up the Texas coast Sept. 13, reported S&P Global.
At 11:25 am Singapore time (0325 GMT), ICE November Brent futures was 43 cents/b (0.59%) higher at USD73.35/b while the NYMEX October WTI contract was up 45 cents/b (0.65%) at USD70.17/b.
"US oil industry struggles to get back on its feet following Hurricane Ida. More than 1m b/d of capacity are still offline, nearly two weeks after the storm hit the Gulf of Mexico," ANZ analysts said Sept. 13.
As of Sept. 10, 1.207 million b/d, or 66.36%, of US Gulf of Mexico crude oil production remained offline, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Further, Tropical Storm Nicholas was seen churning through the US Gulf Coast Sept. 12, heading for an expected landfall along the Texas shoreline by late-Sept. 13.
Nicholas is forecast to approach the middle of Texas coast as a strong tropical storm, and it could be near-hurricane intensity if it moves to the right of the forecast track and remains over water longer, according to a Sept. 12 note from the National Hurricane Center.
NYMEX October RBOB was up 1.77 to settle at USD2.1717/gal, and October ULSD rose 1.15 cents to USD2.1575/gal.
Elsewhere, market watchers were observing the situation in Libya, where protests brought about by a power struggle between Oil Minister Mohamed Oun and the chairman of state-owned National Oil Corporation Mustafa Sanalla threatened to take a large chunk of capacity offline.
The outages have already seen large inventory drawdowns, with US stockpiles falling 1.53 million barrels the previous week.
Stocks data from the US Energy Information Administration released Sept. 9 reflected the Ida impact in the near term. Crude inventories fell 1.53 million barrels to 423.87 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 3, around 6% below the five-year seasonal average, while gasoline stocks saw a 7.2 million-barrel drop to 220 million barrels, leaving inventories 4% below the five-year seasonal average.
As informed earlier, Shell said it observed damage from Hurricane Ida to its transfer station West Delta-143 offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. West Delta-143 serves as the transfer station for all production from its assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico to onshore crude terminals. Shell said it is not yet safe to send personnel offshore to learn the full extent of the damage and estimate the effect on production.
We remind that in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.
We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC