Oil prices rose in the second session on Thursday and rebounded their previous losses, as a drop in US Gulf of Mexico production supported the market after Hurricane Ida damage.
Brent rose 26 cents, or 0.36%, to $72.86 at 0616 GMT, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 12 cents, or 0.17%, to $69.42 a barrel.
US production is struggling to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida. Major damage to infrastructure and power outages mean that Ida has cut more supply than any other storm considering past nine days later.
About 77% of US Gulf production went offline Tuesday, or about 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd). The market has so far been unable to operate about 17.5 million barrels of oil.
The Gulf’s offshore wells account for about 17% of US production.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday that it expects Hurricane Ida to cause a larger decline than previous estimates, with a drop of 160,000 barrels per day, with U.S. crude oil production expected to fall by 200,000 barrels a day to 11.08 million barrels a day in 2021.
American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed crude oil decline was less than expected for the week ended Sept. 3, but gasoline and distillate declines were larger than expected.
API data showed US gasoline inventories fell 6.4 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 3, while crude oil inventories fell 2.9 million barrels. US distillate stocks fell 3.7 million barrels in the same week.
On Wednesday, protesters in Libya blocked oil exports in Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which also supported the oil prices.
