Oil remains moderately higher as markets gauge Harvey damage

Oil prices remained moderately higher on Tuesday, as investors were still evaluating the consequences of Hurricane Harvey on the U.S. petroleum industry.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude September contract was at $46.62 a barrel by 09:00 a.m. ET (13:00 GMT), up around 0.28%.

Elsewhere, Brent oil for October delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London gained 16 cents or 0.31%, to $51.58 a barrel.

Massive floods caused by Harvey forced several refineries to close along the U.S. Gulf Coast, while heavy rains were spreading into the greater Houston area, which has already been hit by catastrophic flooding.

The storm, which made landfall on Friday, is poised to regain strength before crashing ashore again near the Texas-Louisiana border Wednesday.

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.

Later Tuesday, industry group the American Petroleum Institute was set to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT) later on Tuesday.

The Energy Information Administration will released its weekly report on Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.1 million barrels, which would mark the ninth weekly decline in a row.

Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for October rose 0.28% to $1.588 a gallon. It rose to its highest level since July 2015 at $1.618 on Monday.

October heating oil gained 1.24%, to $1.651 a gallon.