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Oil trades near $50 as Gulf workers return after Hurricane Nate

Hong Kong - Oil traded below $50 a barrel as workers started returning to platforms in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Nate crossed the coast.

Futures rose 0.3% in New York after losing 3% on Friday. Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron are among companies working to restore oil and gas operations as Nate weakened on Sunday after it made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi.

The storm follows Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which rattled energy markets last month after shutting refineries and pipelines. US drillers reduced the rig count by two last week, according to Baker Hughes.

Oil on Friday capped the steepest weekly decline since May on speculation rising global output may offset supply cuts led by members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). While market rebalancing is progressing, producers may need to take further steps to sustain the recovery into 2018, Opec Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said Sunday.

"While Nate made a small dent in production, it didn’t do much in terms of oil infrastructure damage," said David Lennox, an analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. "The market may have anticipated the worst given the two proceeding hurricanes.

Prices look comfortable near $50 and will likely continue to trade around here for the time being."

West Texas Intermediate for November delivery was at $49.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 14 cents, at 7:45am in London. Total volume traded was about 10% below the 100-day average.

Prices slid $1.50 to $49.29 on Friday, capping a 4.6% drop for the week in their first weekly loss since early September.

Brent for December settlement rose 15 cents to $55.77 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices declined 3.3% last week. The global benchmark traded at a premium of $5.98 to December WTI.

An estimated 1.62 million barrels a day, or 93% of oil production in the Gulf was halted Sunday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Magellan Midstream Partners resumed normal operations at the Marrero and Gibson oil terminals in Louisiana, and Enbridge returned workers to platforms on Sunday.

Oil-market news:

United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said he’s optimistic that the next Opec meeting will lead to a consensus between the group and its non-Opec partners that will help balance the market in 2018, according to a tweet.

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