Oil stayed in its recent tight range after Hurricane Laura swept the U.S. energy heartland without appearing to inflict major damage on key infrastructure. Futures in New York were steady near $43 a barrel on Friday, with average trading volumes in August plunging to multiyear lows. Laura, one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever hit Louisiana, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and caused widespread damage, but ports and crude facilities — including the largest U.S. refinery — in southeast Texas likely avoided the worst of it.
“With little oil infrastructure damage reported so far, and with shut-in production likely to return in the coming days, it looks as though oil will remain trading in this fairly narrow range that we’ve become accustomed to,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV.
| PRICES |
|---|
|