Texas Oil Industry Braces For Impact As Hurricane Nicholas Makes Landfall

Tropical storm Nicholas, which was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane yesterday, made landfall in the early hours of Tuesday in the Matagorda Peninsula, threatening dangerous flooding in the U.S. oil heartland just days after another hurricane, Ida, shut down almost all offshore oil production and a lot of Gulf Coast refining capacity. The progress of the hurricane pushed oil prices to the highest in six weeks on Monday, as more than 40 percent of U.S. offshore oil production, or close to 800,000 bpd, still remains shut down from Ida. The last…