INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Oil producers and traders are painting a bleak picture for a recovery in fuel demand globallyTokyo: Oil prices rose on Wednesday, extending
gains from the previous session, as a hurricane disrupted US offshore oil and gas production and an industry report showed a big drop in US
Brent crude was trading up 15 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $40.68 per barrel by 0055 GMT (6:25 am in India), while US crude gained 18 cents,
or 0.5 per cent, to $38.46 per barrel
Both contracts rose more than 2 per cent on Tuesday.More than 25 per cent of US offshore oil and gas output was shut and export ports were
closed on Tuesday as Hurricane Sally sat just off the US Gulf Coast."Our current estimate for the total outage associated with the Sally
weather system is between 3 million and 6 million barrels of oil over approximately 11 days," Rystad Energy said in a note.That is likely to
help reduce stockpiles although refineries were also shut down, cutting demand for oil.US crude oil inventories fell by 9.5 million barrels
last week, although gasoline inventories increased, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.Analysts had
expected oil stocks to increase by 1.3 million barrels
Official data on US stockpiles is due out later on Wednesday and often conflicts with the industry figures.Meanwhile, oil producers and
traders are painting a bleak picture for a recovery in fuel demand globally as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, hammering economies.
