OPEC, for some quiet moments..

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Hedge funds lost faith in oil just before the worst storm to hit the U.S. since 2004 struck the heart of energy production in Texas. Short-sellers boosted bets on declining West Texas Intermediate prices by the most since June in the week ended Aug. 22 as futures chopped around $47/bbl without a clear direction. Harvey smashed ashore on Friday as a Category 4 hurricane, flooding a region whose refineries process 5 MMbpd. Anticipation that the storm would pare crude demand pushed prices down a day after declining U.S. stockpiles had triggered a rebound. Futures ended the week 1.3% lower, without enough conviction from bears or bulls to break out of a tight range.

Hedge funds lose faith in oil before Harvey hits demand center

Ricardo Darre, CEO of YPF SA, has resigned as Argentina’s largest oil producer prepares to sell at least $1 billion in assets and focus on developing the world’s second-biggest reserve of shale gas. A six-person committee will lead the company after Darre resigned, according to a filing by YPF on Monday. Darre didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment. Alejandro Bianchi, a spokesman for the Energy Ministry, declined to comment by phone. EconoJournal, a local website focused on energy, reported the resignation earlier.

YPF CEO resigns as oil company readies asset sales, shale focus

Gasoline surged to the highest in two years and oil declined as flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey inundated refining centers along the Texas coast, shutting more than 10% of U.S. fuel-making capacity. Motor fuel prices rose as much as 6.8%, while New York oil futures slipped 0.9%. Harvey, the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since 2004, made landfall as a hurricane Friday, flooding cities and shutting plants able to process some 2.26 MMbpd.  Pipelines were closed, potentially stranding crude in West Texas and interrupting gasoline supply.

Gasoline surges, oil declines as Harvey shutters refineries

In a note released this morning, Goldman's Damien Courvalin calculated the estimate near-term impact from the "devastating" fallout from Harvey. As Courvalin writes, data available so far point to sizably larger refining than production disruptions: as of Sunday, August 27, nearly 3 mb/d of refinery capacity was offline (16.5 percent of the 18.2 mb/d US capacity) vs. c.1 mb/d of crude production (11 percent of 9.3 mb/d current production) and 2 Bcf/d of gas production (3 percent of 72 Bcf/d current production).  Should these levels of outages remain in place, and using past hurricanes as proxies for the impact on oil demand, Goldman estimates that the impact of Harvey on the U.S. oil market would be to increase domestic crude availability by 1.4 mb/d while removing 615-785 kb/d of gasoline and 700 kb/d of distillate supplies. Larger refinery outages would increase these long crude and short product impacts.

Goldman: U.S. Oil Sector Could Take Months To Heal From Harvey | OilPrice.com