Oil in the USA cheaper – traders monitor the situation of Colonial Pipeline

West Texas Intermediate oil barrel in deliveries for June at the NYMEX fuel exchange in New York City is valued at $64.61, below 0.51%.

Term contracts for petrol fell on Nymex by 0.6 percent to $2.1213 per gallon.

Oil Brent in deliveries for July at the ICE Futures Europe fuel exchange in London costs US$67.94 per barrel, below 0.54%.

The largest gas pipeline operator in the US, Colonial Pipeline Co., a key fuel supplier to the eastern U.S. states, announced that most of its services would be resumed by the end of this week.

Colonial Pipeline suspended all operations after the hacking attack on Friday, and the company's CEO warned that there might be serious fuel shortages.

Pipelines have been closed, with 2.5 million barrels of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and fuel oil being shipped daily from over the Gulf of Mexico to the east and south of the United States.

In the U.S., there are already signs of fuel supply disruptions, and some gas stations on the east coast say they have run out of supplies.

Total SE limited its processing operations in Port Arthur, Texas. Citgo Petroleum Corp. in turn reduced production at Lake Charles, Louisiana.

"In view of the fact that Colonial Pipeline expects to resume full transmission services by the end of this week, the market seems to have considered the cyber attack incident to be a temporary disturbance on this operator," says Vandana Hari, co-founder of Vanda Insights consulting company.

"The attention of the fuel markets returns to the global dichotomy between countries emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, and those still kept in +citation+ by coronavirus," he adds.

Although the pandemic has softened in the United States, Europe and China, it continues to spread in other countries, especially India.

The World Health Organization believes that the coronavirus variant that is spreading there is a global problem.

Source: PAP