⁍ Storm toppled trees, flooded streets and left almost 500,000 homes and businesses without power.

---

⁍ Crews returned to at least 30 offshore oil and gas platforms.

---

⁍ Crude weakened early Thursday with U.S. futures CLc1 down a fraction and trading below $40 a barrel.

---

– Oil and gas production is slowly returning to normal in the Gulf of Mexico after a five-day shutdown caused by Hurricane Sally, Reuters reports. At least 30 offshore oil and gas platforms are now back in operation, and Chevron has begun restaffing two platforms. Oil and gas exports have also returned to normal. The storm toppled trees, flooded streets, and left almost 500,000 homes and businesses in Alabama and Florida without power. The storm was a tropical depression as of Thursday morning, drenching an area from eastern Alabama to central Georgia with torrential rain. As of Thursday morning, Sally was a tropical depression drenching an area from eastern Alabama to central Georgia with torrential rain. It was located about 50 miles southeast of Montgomery, Alabama, and packed sustained winds of 30 miles per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Center. Sally is forecast to degenerate into a remnant low by Thursday night, according to the hurricane center. Some 1.1 million bpd of US refining capacity were offline on Wednesday, according to the US Energy Department. Chevron said its Pascagoula, Mississippi, oil refinery operated normally through the storm. Shell will also keep the crude distillation unit, alkylation unit, and reformer shut for at least a week at its 227,400-bpd Norco, Louisiana, refinery for short-term maintenance work, sources told Reuters. Phillips 66 PSX.N, which shut its 255,600-bpd Alliance, Louisiana, oil refinery ahead of the storm, said it was advancing planned maintenance at the facility and would keep processing halted. Royal Dutch Shell said its Mobile, Alabama, chemical plant and refinery reported no serious damage from an initial survey.