Natural-gas futures and oil prices were up on Wednesday due to a sluggish return of energy output in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida. It was the highest finish for Natural gas since 2014.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) estimated on Wednesday afternoon that nearly 77% of Gulf of Mexico oil production remained shut after the hurricane. More than 77% of natural-gas output also remained closed. Hurricane Ida was the powerful storm that hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.
The BSEE said that personnel are still evacuated from 73 production platforms. These account for about 13% of the manned platforms in the Gulf.
In a market update, Robbie Fraser, global research & analytics manager at Schneider Electric said, it’s clear that the storm was one of the most damaging on record for offshore oil and gas production, as well as import/export terminals and refineries in Louisiana.
He also said that it is expected to contribute to strong crude and product draws in coming data from the American Petroleum Institute, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The first glimpse of that impact should come this week, Fraser added.
Gold Up but Gains Capped
By 12:31 AM ET (4:31 AM GMT), gold futures climbed 0.04% to $1,799.15, slightly above the more than one-week low of $1,791.90 hit on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the dollar rose to remain near a one-week high.
During the previous session, gold fell 1.6% then rose on Wednesday morning in Asia. However, a strengthening dollar and rising U.S. Treasury yields capped the yellow metal’s gains.
On Tuesday, the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose up to 1.385% for the first time since mid-July 2021.
Meanwhile, according to data from the Central Bank of Venezuela on Tuesday, its country’s gold reserves fell by three tons in the first half of 2021. They are currently at their lowest level in 50 years, it said.
Also on Tuesday, Russia’s Nornickel said that it has extracted additional metals from waste products. It was part of new technology that was tested to support its 2021 output from its Arctic mines hit by flooding.
In other precious metals, silver, platinum, and palladium rose 0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.2%, respectively.
