Oil trades flat as traders assess US hurricane impact

Oil benchmarks are flat lined this Tuesday morning in Asia as traders asses the impact on Hurricane Irma on energy demand. 

At press time, Brent oil traded at $53.78/barrel and WTI oil traded at $48.05/barrel. 

As per Reuters report, " Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida on Sunday, leaving more than 7.4 million homes and businesses without power, but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm". The dampening impact on oil demand is not as serious as previously expected. 

Furthermore, the largest U.S. refinery Motiva have started to come back online after being shut for more than two-weeks due to Hurricane Harvey. 

Eyes API report

Reuters report says, "Six analysts polled ahead of inventory reports from the industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated, on average, that crude stocks likely rose 2.3 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 8."
A bigger drop in the oil inventories could lift oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic.