Oil focus on key pipeline restoration after cyber attack

Oil was up Monday morning in Asia, as efforts continue to restore production after top US fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline Co. was hit by a cyber-attack during the previous week.

Brent oil futures rose 0.56% to $68.66 by 13:14 PM ET (5:14 AM GMT) and WTI futures were up 0.52% to $65.24.

Colonial Pipeline was forced to shut down its entire network after Friday’s ransomware attack, with the timeline for restarting its main pipeline is still not clear.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is also working closely with the company in recovery efforts. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck effort right now… we are working closely with the company, state and local officials, to make sure that they get back up to normal operations as quickly as possible and there aren’t disruptions in supply,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

The pipeline supplies nearly half of all the fuel consumed on the US East Coast and provides refined products to more than 50 million Americans.

Crude prices are likely to increase at several fuel distribution points, including Wilmington in North Carolina, Charleston in South Carolina and Savannah in Georgia, Tank Tiger chief executive officer Ernie Barsamian told Bloomberg.

The disruption comes as accelerating Covid-19 vaccination rates improve the fuel demand outlook ahead of the peak summer driving season.

Elsewhere, fresh outbreaks of the virus have led to the extension of restrictive measures in places such as Australia. India also continues to deal with a virulent second wave of Covid-19 cases, with 366,161 cases and 3,754 deaths on Monday.

In other commodities, iron ore futures surged as trading opened on Monday, with futures in Singapore rose more than 10% to hit a fresh record of $226 a tonne. A continuous surge in demand from China and the current surge in commodity prices globally helped the steelmaking raw material continue its record run.

First published on Investing.com