Oil Prices Climb As Hurricane Idalia Hurtles Towards The Gulf Coast

Crude oil prices extended the gains they’d made on Tuesday today as traders watched Hurricane Idalia approach the Gulf Coast and the American Petroleum Institute surprised the market with a massive inventory draw. Idalia was forecast to reach Category 4 intensity by the time it made landfall in Florida by the National Hurricane Center, which said as of Tuesday it was a Category 2. Landfall is expected for later today. Meanwhile, oil and gas operations in the Gulf are mostly business as usual except for three Chevron platforms where workers…