Oil settles up 1% on low U.S. output after hurricane | Reuters

Oil settles up 1% on low U.S. output after hurricane | Reuters

Oil prices jumped on Wednesday and settled up more than 1% as U.S. Gulf of Mexico producers made slow progress in restoring output after Hurricane Ida.

Brent settled up91 cents, or 1.3%, at $72.60 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 95 cents, or 1.4%, to $69.30 a barrel.

Producers in the Gulf are still struggling to restart operations nine days after Ida swept through the region with powerful winds and drenching rain.

About 77% of U.S. Gulf production remained offline on Tuesday, or about 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd). About 17.5 million barrels of oil have been lost to the market so far. [nL1N2Q21OI]

The Gulf's offshore wells make up about 17% of U.S. output.