Crude prices slip

LONDON. — Crude prices slipped lower yesterday as the market grappled with the shutdown of 13 percent of refining capacity in the United States after a hurricane ripped through the heart of the country’s oil industry.

The refinery closures helped to push US gasoline futures RBc1 to a two-year high of $1,7799 per gallon on Monday, though they had receded to $1,7466 by 1325 GMT yesterday.

International Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 7 cents at $51,82 a barrel, having traded as high as $52,19 and as low as $51,36 earlier in the day. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 edged down 24 cents to $46,33 after falling more than 2 percent in the previous session and trading as high as $46,96 earlier in the day.

The damage assessment could lead to more volatility. Some refineries were preparing for restarts, but heavy rains are expected to last through Wednesday, adding to catastrophic flooding in Houston.

“Refineries in Asia should run much harder to make up for (US closures), which is supportive for Brent,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of oil analysis firm PetroMatrix.

Refineries in Europe and Asia were already gearing up to replace the lost oil products, while the International Energy Agency said it could release emergency oil stocks in the event of extended outages. Still, Jakob warned that the scale of US upstream outages is not yet clear and extensive damage to oilfields or pipelines could boost WTI prices. Reuters.