Oil bounces off 5-week lows but Harvey still weighs

Oil prices bounced off a five-week low on Thursday, while gasoline futures remained sharply higher, as markets continued to weigh the impact of Tropical Storm Harvey on supply and demand.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude October contract was at $46.34 a barrel by 09:00 a.m. ET (13:00 GMT), up 38 cents or around 0.83%. It ended 1% lower on Wednesday after hitting its weakest level since July 24 at $45.58.

Elsewhere, Brent oil for October delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London gained 53 cents or 1.06%, to $51.25 a barrel.

Oil prices have been under pressure this week as Tropical Storm Harvey battered the U.S. Gulf Coast, ripping through Texas and Louisiana at the heart of the U.S. petroleum industry.

Texas is home to 5.6 million barrels of refining capacity per day, and Louisiana has 3.3 million barrels. Over 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity were estimated to be offline as a result of the storm.

U.S. commercial crude oil stocks fell by 5.4 million barrels last week, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, marking the ninth straight weekly decline. However, the data was collected before Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast.

Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for October jumped 2.54% to $1.684 a gallon.

Natural gas futures for October delivery slid 0.34% to $2.93 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the day.