Oil dips as U.S. rigs, refiners appear to have avoided worst of storm

MELBOURNE, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell in early trade
on Friday as a massive hurricane raced inland past the heart of
the U.S. oil industry in Louisiana and Texas, with a storm surge
weaker than predicted.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures fell
16 cents, or 0.4%, to $42.85 a barrel as of 0014 GMT, adding to
overnight losses.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures for October, set to expire on
Friday, fell 9 cents, or 0.2%, to $45.00 a barrel, while the
more active November contract LCOc2 slipped 7 cents to $45.53.
Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana early Thursday with 150
mile-per-hour (240 kph) winds, damaging buildings, knocking down
trees and cutting power to more than 650,000 people in Louisiana
and Texas, but refineries were spared from feared massive
flooding. "Unless there is any lasting damage to oil production
infrastructure, it would not be a surprise to see oil trade down
a bit after the storm as damage assessment continues," AxiCorp
market strategist Stephen Innes said in a note.
U.S. producers had shut 1.56 million barrels per day of
crude output, or 83% of the Gulf of Mexico's production, while
nine refineries had shut around 2.9 million bpd of capacity, or
15% of U.S. processing capacity, ahead of the storm.
Late on Thursday, the Port of Houston, the top U.S. crude
oil export hub accounting for about 600,000 barrels per day of
shipments, was in the process of reopening to commercial
shipping late Thursday. The earlier closures of Houston Port, Beaumont and Port
Arthur were expected to reduce seaborne crude export capacity by
nearly 1 million bpd, data intelligence firm Kpler estimated,
based on average figures over the past four months.
In refining, Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N was preparing to
restart units at 369,024 bpd Beaumont, Texas refinery, sources
familiar with plant operations said.