Oil under pressure from Hurricane Harvey. The cyclone, which in the meantime has been downgraded to a storm but caused some deaths in Texas, hit and devastated Houston, the capital of American shale oil. On Saturday alone Harvey put out of order refining plants for 900 thousand barrels and destroyed production capacity for 430 thousand barrels, or 15% of the refining capacity was lost.
Predictable result: the price of oil has risen, even if not too much, but above all the cost of fuel has soared, with the gasoline climbed 4,5% to $1,73 a gallon. This morning Brent traded at 52,58 dollars (+0,3%), the American Wti at 47,71. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans halved the growth rate of the US economy for six months. This time the damage caused by the most violent tropical storm to ever hit Texas should be relatively less.
