Hurricane Harvey pushes oil prices to $54 per barrel

Oil prices rose on Wednesday and remained so on Thursday due to the closure of refineries as a result of Hurricane Harvey, which knocked out refineries, pipelines, and ports in some parts of the United States.

By 7am on Thursday morning, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at $54.02 per barrel, a 16 cents drop from $54.20 which it exchanged for on Wednesday afternoon.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) also traded at 49.05 a barrel, also a 16 cents drop from $49.21 which it exchanged for on Wednesday afternoon.

Before now, Brent crude price had hovered around $53 with WTI trading in the $47 region.

NAN reports that oil facilities in Texas and Louisiana that were affected by the hurricane are now restarting.