By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Oil was up Thursday morning in Asia, rising for a second session. The black liquid continued to claw back some earlier losses, boosted by the slow recovery in the Gulf of Mexico from the damage wrought by Hurricane Ida
Brent oil futures was up 0.21% to $72.75 by 11:54 PM ET (3:54 AM GMT) and WTI futuresinched up 0.09% to $69.36.
"U.S. production is struggling to recover from Hurricane Ida. Extensive damage to infrastructure and power outages mean Ida has knocked off more supply after nine days than any other storm," ANZ analysts said in a note.
Around 77%, or about 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), of U.S. Gulf of Mexico production remained offline as of Tuesday.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a draw of 2.882 million barrels for the week ending Sep. 3. Forecasts prepared by Investing.com had predicted a 3.832-million-barrel draw while a 4.045-million-barrel draw was recorded during the previous week.
However, U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 6.4 million barrels for the week ended Sep. 3, while distillate stocks fell by 3.7 million barrels over the same week, according to API data.
Investors now await crude supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, due later in the day.
A potential supply challenge in Libya also gave oil a boost. Oil engineers working at the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports said that protestors were blocking oil exports. However, other engineers said production at fields that supply the terminals was unaffected.