Follow-up – WAA
Oil prices jumped about 3 percent as producers assessed the damage to U.S. Gulf of Mexico production after Hurricane Frances passed through offshore oil production areas before weakening to a tropical storm.
UBS analysts estimated that up to 1.5 million barrels of Gulf of Mexico production was disrupted by the storm that hit the southern Mississippi River early Thursday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.66, or 2.47 percent, to settle at $68.97 a barrel. Brent crude futures rose $1.70, or 2.4 percent, to $72.31 a barrel.
Both crude futures rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday as companies evacuated more than 171 offshore platforms due to the hurricane. The resulting outage is expected to cut output this month from the Gulf of Mexico by about 50,000 barrels per day, according to UBS analysts.