Oil tumbles as Irma imperils demand in gasoline-thirsty Florida

Bloomberg

Oil declined the most since July as Hurricane Irma threatened to slash energy demand that had only just begun to recover from the wrath of Harvey.
Futures slid 3.3% in New York. While Valero Energy Corp. and other refiners resumed fuel production after Harvey roared ashore two weeks ago, demand for gasoline and other transportation fuels may falter across much of the southeastern US if Florida and neighboring states take a direct hit from Irma. Florida burns more gasoline than any other state except California and Texas.
Uncertainty has traders “pulling in their horns ahead of the storm,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago, said by telephone. “They are worried about demand destruction.”
The most recent data from the Energy Information Administration showed last week’s rise in US crude stockpiles was the largest since March. Meanwhile, deliveries of foreign crude to the Gulf Coast fell to the lowest in records going back to 1990 as Harvey’s wind and rain shut every major port in the region.
“People are thinking we’ve had the worst of the refinery outages and that’s behind us,” Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. in Winchester, Massachusetts, said by telephone. “The refineries will be starting up and absorbing more crude.”