Oil Falls as US Storm-Hit Supply Makes Slow Return

Oil prices fell on Friday as more supply came back on stream in the US Gulf of Mexico following two hurricanes, but both benchmark contracts were on track for weekly gains of more than 3% as recovery in output is seen lagging demand.
Brent crude futures fell 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $75.32 a barrel, erasing Thursday's 21 cent gain. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 42 cents, or 0.6%, at $72.19 a barrel, after settling unchanged in the previous session, Reuters reported.
"Oil prices are slightly softer as offshore US production continues to slowly return, and as return to normal across large parts of Asia hit some road bumps, and as some countries still struggle to contain the Delta variant [of the coronavirus] spread," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
Both contracts were on course to add more than 3% for the week, as output in the US Gulf of Mexico has recovered more slowly than expected after Hurricane Ida damaged facilities in August and tropical storm Nicholas hit this week.
"Crude prices are having another good week despite broad weakness across commodities that stemmed from a resilient US dollar," said Moya.
The dollar climbed to a three-week high on Friday, making dollar-traded crude imports more expensive for countries using other currencies.
Preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration showed US crude exports in September have slipped to between 2.34-2.62 million barrels per day from 3 million bpd in late August.