Hurricane Beryl swirled in the Caribbean Sea and strengthened overnight into a powerful Category 5 storm, the earliest on record for the Atlantic hurricane season, raising concerns among energy traders about possible chaos along the Gulf Coast.
Beryl made landfall on the Caribbean island of Carriacou, Grenada, on Monday morning with winds of about 150 mph. It is the strongest storm known to have crossed the Grenadines region, according to NOAA data going back to 1851.
Beryl’s arrival marks the early start of what some meteorologists expected to be an active hurricane season. The storm’s strength surprised energy traders and pushed the West Texas Intermediate (also known as the Texas Light Sweet) to a two-month high on Monday.
Bloomberg noted: “Crude oil futures rose on Tuesday, trading at their highest since late April, driven by increased travel around the Independence Day holiday and concerns that powerful Hurricane Beryl could later cause disruptions to oil production off the Gulf of Mexico.”
In a client note, Swissquote Bank senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya stressed that while Beryl may not have an immediate impact on operations in the Gulf of Mexico, it could cause disruptions later in the week.
Computer models suggest the storm could make landfall on or near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula around Friday morning before turning north toward the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Related: U.S. energy production sets new record
a Middle East tensions and Strong demand ahead of July 4th, Big short squeeze, Atlantic hurricane season gets off to a fast start Several factors have been driving WTI prices higher, pushing them up 10% since April 26th.
As we predicted on June 6, an active Atlantic hurricane season with storms like Beryl could cause disruption to major refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. This confusion has led to gas station prices Politically sensitive Ahead of the presidential election this fall, the Biden administration will raise gasoline prices to $4 a gallon.
Queue up some more SPR dumps…
From Zerohedge.com
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