On August 25, the U.S. WTI crude oil futures market prices rose, with the settlement price of main contracts at $43.35/barrel, up $0.73. Brent crude oil futures market prices rose, the main contract settlement price to 46.29 U.S. dollars / barrel, up 0.65 dollars. WTI crude oil and Brent crude oil reached the highest level since March, mainly due to the hurricane, most of the offshore crude oil production units along the Gulf of Mexico were shut down, and supply risk partially offset the impact of the epidemic.

According to relevant overseas news, the U.S. energy industry is preparing for the coming of Hurricane Laura, which experts say is the most threatening for the US oil industry in 15 years.

Oil producers are urgently cutting crude oil production in the wake of the hurricane. In addition, they have suspended most refining units along the coast of Texas and Louisiana. According to the American Energy Information Association (EIA), oil production in the Gulf of Mexico coastal areas hit by the hurricane accounts for 17% of the total U.S. production, and refining capacity accounts for more than 45%. Refineries that produce gasoline and diesel are taking steps to shut down nine facilities, which are calculated to process nearly 2.9 million barrels of crude oil a day, or 14.6 percent of the total refining capacity of the United States. This has a significant impact on US oil supply. Currently, 82% of oil production and 57% of natural gas production have been shut down in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil producers along the Gulf Coast cut crude oil production by 1.56 million barrels per day. The sharp drop in supply has provided a boost to oil prices.

In addition, foreign news on August 25, data released by the American Petroleum Association (API) on Tuesday showed that US crude oil and gasoline inventories fell last week. As of August 21, crude oil inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels, and analysts estimated a decrease of 3.7 million barrels. API said crude oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 646000 barrels. Gasoline inventories fell 6.4 million barrels last week, with analysts expecting a 1.5 million decline. Inventories have fallen for weeks in a row, which also supports the current relatively high oil prices.

The business agency believes that in the near future, oil prices may continue to consolidate at a high level. On the one hand, under the influence of the Gulf of Mexico hurricane, the shutdown of oil plants will reduce the impact of supply, and on the other hand, it will be a good support for the decline of inventory for several weeks. However, in the medium term, the oil price does not have the fundamental basis of a substantial upward trend. Except for the OPEC + oil producing countries’ agreement on production reduction, the scale of production reduction will gradually decrease, and the supply will be reduced In the medium and long term, there are certain risks; what’s more, there are still great risks in the current epidemic situation in Europe, America and Asia, and the pace of demand recovery may be affected by the epidemic situation for a long time. Therefore, it is difficult to make a substantial breakthrough in oil prices in the medium and long term.