US gasoline hits $2/gal as Harvey wreaks havoc on refiners; crude weak

SINGAPORE: Gasoline prices in the United States hit $2 a gallon for the first time since 2015 on Thursday as flooding from storm Harvey knocked out almost a quarter of US refineries, while crude prices remained weak as demand dropped following the outages.

Harvey has battered the US Gulf coast since last Friday, ripping through Texas, Louisiana and the heart of the US petroleum industry. At least 4.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity was offline, based on company reports and Reuters estimates.

Amid fears of a supply squeeze, US gasoline prices on Thursday jumped to $2 per gallon for the first time since July 2015, and traders from Europe to Asia were scrambling to fix fuel cargoes to the United States.

Goldman Sachs said it could take several months before all production could be brought back online.

“While no two natural disasters are similar, the precedent of Rita-Katrina would suggests that 10 per cent of the... currently offline capacity could remain unavailable for several months,” the bank said.

While gasoline spiked, crude markets remained weak after already falling sharply the previous day. The closure of so many US refineries has resulted in a slump in demand for the most important feedstock for the petroleum industry.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $46 per barrel at 0708 GMT, slightly above last day’s settlement, when prices fell by 0.8 per cent intraday.

International Brent crude was at $50.74 a barrel, down 12 cents from the previous day, when the contract fell by more than 2 per cent.

“The temporary closure of refineries is a major dent to United States’ crude demand and is weighing on both Brent and WTI prices,” BMI Research said.

Analysts said that the heavy WTI discount with Brent was a result of shut in US crude supplies due to pipeline and refinery closures.

Harvey could be the worst storm in US history in terms of financial cost.

“The economy’s impact, by the time its total destruction is completed, will approach $160 billion,” said Joel N Myers, president and chairman of meteorological firm AccuWeather.

— Reuters