Oil drops, Gasoline jumps to 2-year high

Oil prices fell during the overnight trade, while gasoline prices jumped to a 2-year high of $1.9140 as tropical storm Harvey shut nearly 25% of the US refining capacity. 

As per Reuters report, Harvey has shut 4.4 million barrels of US refining capacity, thus ensuring the US oil remains landlocked. Thus, US oil fell 1% to $45.96/barrel and Brent dropped 2.2% to $50.86/barrel. The Brent-WTI spread hit its widest in more than two years on Wednesday before settling at $4.90.

Harvey, which could be the worst storm in US history in terms of financial damage, overshadowed the inventory data released by the US Energy Department, which showed oil stocks fell by 5.4 million barrels last week, far more than the expected decrease of 1.9 million barrels.