1.1 million

Daily crude oil production shuttered in the US after Hurricane Ida

It’s unclear when that output will return, a bullish sign for oil prices, according to the world’s biggest independent trader.

Ida, which made landfall near New Orleans as a hurricane last month, battered the US from the Gulf coast to the Atlantic seaboard. With oil production shut in as a precaution and Opec cuts restricting output, buyers have less oil with which to meet recovering demand as economies pull out of coronavirus-induced downturns.

The shutdowns led to more than 40 million barrels of lost output in refined fuels and slightly less in foregone production from offshore fields, said Mike Muller, head of trader Vitol Group’s Asia operations.