Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana in late August, has unexpectedly prolonged impacts on the global crude oil supply, which resulted in a surge in oil prices over the last month, analysts said. According to data from the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the hurricane has removed more than 30 million barrels of crude from the market since late August. About 0.25-0.30 million bpd of oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico remained offline as of last week.
Royal Dutch Shell said production at its Mars and Ursa oil fields would likely be impacted until the first quarter of 2022 due to extensive damage at the West Delta-143 transfer facility. Last week, US petroleum stockpiles were 4.5-5.0% behind the pre-pandemic five-year seasonal average, bigger than a shortfall of around 2.5% before the hurricane. Market participants expect the inventories to fall further, boosting spot prices and calendar spreads.
