⁍ Storm has halted 80% of the region’s offshore oil and nearly 50% of its natural gas output.

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⁍ U.S. crude oil futures up 2.7% at $41.02 a barrel in morning trade.

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⁍ Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the sole deep water port on the Gulf of Mexico, halted seaborne exports and imports.

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– Hurricane Delta has begun its march through offshore oil producing areas in the US Gulf of Mexico, Reuters reports. The storm, expected to intensify over the Gulf to a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 miles per hour, has halted 80% of the region’s offshore oil and nearly 50% of its natural gas output. Offshore producers including Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and Occidental Petroleum pulled workers from oil and gas production platforms to safer onshore quarters. The unusually high number of storms coupled with pandemic safety precautions has made this year a costly and difficult one for offshore producers. US crude oil futures were up 2.7% at $41.02 a barrel in morning trade on the shut-ins and prospects for a new US economic stimulus to combat fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Onshore oil and gas processing plants and energy ports from Port Arthur, Texas to New Orleans also were battening down under tropical storm wind advisories. Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the sole deep water port on the Gulf of Mexico, halted seaborne exports and imports. The state sought and received a federal disaster declaration ahead of the storm’s arrival. Delta is expected to make landfall on the Louisiana coast by Friday evening.