Oil Prices Reach New High – Hurricane Season Heats Up

On Friday, a storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico began making headlines, as it would be the first storm of the new hurricane season to impact the mainland US. Forecasters are reporting that the storm system could strengthen to a tropical storm briefly before making landfall as early as the end of this week, but they are still uncertain as to an exact date. On Friday, the National Hurricane Center released a Five-Day Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook for those to monitor the situation.

Assuming the Gulf disturbance strengthens, it would be named Tropical Depression Bill. There will be many more to come; NOAA and private forecasters expect a hectic 2021 Atlantic hurricane season from June 1 to November 30. If expert predictions become a reality, it would be the sixth year in a row of above-normal hurricane activity.

With Americans finally feeling comfortable outside their homes and having the urge to travel, cars and airplanes now need fuel more than at any point in the past year. Vehicle and airplane traffic is rapidly advancing towards pre-COVID levels, forcing the energy supply chain to hurry to keep pace. Further boosting this return to normalcy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Friday they “expect global demand to return to pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2022, more quickly than previously anticipated.” To ease the rising demand, the IEA called for OPEC+ to increase their output, but OPEC+ is still hesitant to continue expanding their production to support prices.

This morning crude opened up at $70.65, a new multi-year high to add on to the ongoing trend of higher fuel prices. Higher prices are being fueled by optimistic fuel demand and the steady rebounding United States economy. Diesel opened up this morning at $2.1146 and gasoline at $2.1827.