OPEC, for some quiet moments..

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Half-a-million barrels of U.S. government oil is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a Gulf Coast refinery -- the first emergency discharge in five years -- after storm Harvey halted foreign crude deliveries to the heart of the nation’s refining industry. The crude released to the Phillips 66 refinery will take the form of an exchange, in which the Houston-based company will replace the oil once supplies are flowing again. As many as 11 ports were shut during Harvey’s five-day rampage across hundreds of miles of the Texas coast, leaving 28 tankers laden with more than 18 MMbbl of overseas oil drifting offshore as of Wednesday night.

Strategic oil reserve tapped in first emergency draw since 2012

World energy markets, from butane in Asia to diesel in Europe and gasoline in Latin America, are feeling the ripple effect of Texas’s deadly storm, highlighting the growing role of the U.S. in the global oil industry. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the U.S. exported just 800,000 bpd of mostly refined products. Today it ships more than 6 MMbpd of crude and fuels, an increase driven by a boom in shale production, the end of a ban on crude exports and the expansion of several refineries.

Harvey's global impact signals growing U.S. clout in oil markets

Tropical Storm Harvey’s devastation is giving the U.S. natural gas market at least three reasons to bet on a decline in prices for the fuel.

Harvey's havoc gives U.S. gas traders three reasons to be bears

Angola’s Petroleum Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said it’s essential for the southern African nation’s economy that oil prices rebound to $60/bbl this year. “That would be extremely important,” Botelho de Vasconcelos said Monday in an interview in the country’s capital Luanda. “We’ve been getting signs from the market that prices could reach $60 by the end of the year.”

Angola oil minister says nation needs crude to rebound to $60