Oil Rises Ahead of Hurricane Sally, Gloomy Demand Outlooks Hold Back Gains

Brent crude was up 24 cents to 39.85 dollars a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures increased 33 cents to $ 37.59. Both contracts were down on Monday.

The rally in oil contracts comes just before Hurricane Sally is expected to hit the US coast on the Gulf of Mexico. More than a fifth of US offshore oil production was halted and major export ports closed as the storm’s course turned eastward toward western Alabama, bypassing some Gulf Coast refineries.

However, the outlook for oil demand remained weak, which limited gains during the session.

Today, the International Energy Agency reduced its demand for demand in 2020 by 200 thousand barrels per day to 91.7 million barrels per day.
The reason for this is the need to be careful about the pace of economic recovery.

“We expect the recovery in oil demand to slow significantly in the second half of 2020,” the agency said in its monthly report.