Oil futures were slightly higher around midday Friday following the previous day's sharp rally as market participants evaluated the impacts from shut-ins of offshore oil platforms and possible operational issues of two U.S. Gulf Coast oil refineries.
At 11:50 a.m. ET, November NYMEX West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up around 50cts to $92/bbl, and December WTI was 35cts higher to $91.10/bbl.
London-based December ICE Brent was up about 40cts to $104.70/bbl and January Brent was 35cts higher at $101.30/bbl.
On Thursday, oil benchmarks rose $3-4/bbl after an attack on an oil tanker near Qatar raised fears that a wave of strikes on shipping is spreading far beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
November NYMEX ULSD was down 9.8cts to $4.785/gal and December ULSD was 8.85cts lower to $4.628/gal. November RBOB was also down 1.4ct to $3.302/gal and December RBOB was 0.2ct to $3.1575/gal.
Isaias, which strengthened into a major hurricane earlier Friday, has shut in offshore oil production platforms and could affect operations of two oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
At Isaias' current path, operations of only two refineries -- Chevron's 375,200b/d Pascagoula, Miss., and Vertex Energy's 91,200 b/d Mobile, Ala., -- are at risk of being impacted, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said Friday.