It’s the year of the unprecedented and the hurricane season has been no exception.
The amount equates to about 270,000 barrels a day, or roughly the same rate of production as in OPEC member Republic of Congo. The productions shut-ins helped steer swollen U.S. crude inventories to a six-month low after the last hurricane, Zeta, swept through in the week of October 30.
Wiped Out
Hurricanes and storms shut a record amount of Gulf of Mexico oil output in 2020
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
The record 12 storms to hit the U.S. so far this year, out of an all-time-high 29 systems formed in the Atlantic, would probably have made much more of a splash in oil prices had they not happened against the backdrop of an historic virus-driven market crash.
Now all eyes are on the prospects of a vaccine that may get life back to normal and restore global demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.