By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gave up most of its gains from earlier in the day as the forecast track for Hurricane Beryl continued to aim it away from major offshore production areas in the U.S.-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico.
Brent crude futures gained 24 cents, or 0.28%, to $86.84 a barrel by 10:20 a.m. CDT (1520 GMT). U.S. West Texas WTI) crude was up 5 cents, or 0.06%, at $83.23.
Earlier on Monday, WTI rose $1 TO $84.38 a barrel on fears Beryl might have a wider impact in the Gulf of Mexico as U.S. demand for motor fuels is increasing.
Both benchmarks gained about 2% in the previous session.
But as new forecasts emerged on Monday, traders were less fearful of supply problems, said Phill Flynn, analyst with the Price Futures Group.
“Markets came to the realization that Beryl is not going to shut down any major amounts of offshore oil production,” Flynn said. “We may see some shut, but its going to have a minimal impact on platforms.”
Hurricane Beryl is a dangerous Category 5 hurricane tearing through the Caribbean Sea. It is expected to have weakened into a tropical storm by the time it enters the Gulf of Mexico late this week, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
U.S. gasoline demand is expected to ramp up as the summer travel season picks up with the Independence Day holiday this week. The American Automobile Association has forecast that travel during the holiday period will be 5.2% higher than in 2023, with car travel up 4.8%.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston; Additonal reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Colleen Howe in Beijing; Editing by David Evans and David Holmes)
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