US refinery activity plummets as Harvey hits Gulf Coast, DoE says

US gasoline stockpiles shrank last week as refineries were shuttered as Hurricane Harvey approached the Texas coast and the offloading of imported cargoes was interrupted.

Harvey led US refineries to operate at just 79.7% of capacity during the week ending on 1 September, resulting in a 822,000 barrel per day fall in imports when compared to the prior week to reach 7.1m barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy's statistical arm.

As a result, gasoline stockpiles were drawn down by 3.2m barrels but remained near the upper limit of their average range for that time of year, while those of distillates fell by 1.4m barrels.

In parallel, crude oil inventories jumped by 4.6m barrels from the previous week to reach 462.4m.

Domestic US oil production in the lower 48 states was also impacted, shrinking by 783,000 barrels to 8.29m.

As of 1656 BST, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were 0.06% lower to $49.13 a barrel on the NYMEX.