Global product markets weekly: US hurricane outages drive global margins to 18 month highs

The oil market fell rebounded last week following disruptions to US offshore production and refining operations caused by Hurricane Ida. North Sea Dated crude’s weekly average rose US$2.13/bbl to US$72.83/bbl, the highest value in 4 weeks. The disruption to US oil supply lent support to prices through the week, offsetting the decision by OPEC+ to proceed with a 400kb/d supply increase for October. There remains over 93% of US Gulf Coast offshore production offline. Concerns also remain around global demand growth given rising Covid cases and slowing industrial activity in the US and China, limiting the upside to prices. Our ex-RVO global composite refining margin rose US$0.09/bbl to US$5.34/bbl, the highest weekly margin since March 2020. The weekly margins were US$0.31/bbl above the five-year historical average.