Crude Oil Futures

  Hurricane Ian that is about to batter the west coast of Florida appears to have spared the major US oil refineries along the Gulf Coast, although the inhabitants of the southern state of the US are not out of the woods. Hurricane Ian that grew into a Category 3 storm - the highest is Category 5 - while moving over the tropical island, Cuba, will make  landfall in Florida today, with mandatory evacuation orders in certain parts are in place. The path of the hurricane, taken from a very reliable model, shows it is turning towards Florida, deviating from the path that forecasters initially thought it would take. In response, some refineries took cautionary measures to shut down the refineries and oil facilities, fearing a direct hit. Fortunately, Hurricane Ian has bent northeast while sparing the oil facilities in question; in September, last year, the oil refineries along the US Gulf coast took a direct hit from Tropical Storm Nicholas that resulted in chaos in the supply chain in the

  The price of crude oil has been falling for three successive weeks despite the obvious concerns about a steady supply in the evolving political uncertainties across world - including the war in Ukraine. As of 13:45 GMT, the prices of two major benchmarks, WTI and Brent, recorded $78.21 and $85.50 respectively. The price of LNG, liquified natural gas that used to offer a feeble upthrust on the falling oil prices, meanwhile, stood at $6.69. The fact that the price of WTI fell below the psychologically-significant $80 clearly shows that the demand has suffered due to high prices. Had it not been for the high price of LNG, the fall would have been steeper and even bordered on a crash. Analysts hoped that the price would recover the lost ground in light of the news that the OPEC+ has not met its output target in August: in fact, it lost the output target by 3.58 million barrels; it is a bigger shortfall than that for July. The OPEC+ has not accounted for falling below its own output