Stocks of US motor gasoline registered their biggest ever weekly drop as suppliers drew from tank storage to replace gallons lost from oil refineries sidelined by hurricane Harvey.
The level of petrol in inventory declined by 8.4m barrels to 218.3m barrels in the week ended September 8, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. The fall was sharpest on the US east coast, where supplies were disrupted by the shutdown of a critical pipeline but roads were unaffected by Harvey’s wrath.
Harvey swept ashore in late August, flooding and damaging oil refineries. As of Friday six refineries on the Gulf of Mexico coast were still shut down, five were in the process or restarting and at least six refineries were operating at reduced rates, according to the US Department of Energy.
Last week US refineries ran at at only 78 per cent of their operable capacity, allowing US commercial crude oil stocks to rise by 5.9m barrels to 468.2m.
Four refiners were still shut down on Wednesday, amounting to capacity of more than 700,000 barrels a day.
Retail petrol prices surged after Harvey cut supplies. On Monday, they averaged $2.685 per gallon, up from $2.399 two weeks before, according to EIA.
Nymex October gasoline futures were 0.3 per cent lower at $1.6513 per gallon after the data were released on Wednesday.
http://ift.tt/2wWxo3c
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar