The hurricane barreling toward the Texas coast may have prompted the evacuation of 39 Gulf of Mexico platforms and the shutdown of a chunk of the region's oil production, but it has had no apparent effect yet on the price of oil.
The National Weather Service warned Thursday that Hurricane Harvey was "intensifying rapidly." It was expected to slam Texas on Friday as a major hurricane.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which regulates the offshore energy industry, said in a prepared statement that its hurricane response team is monitoring the platform evacuations.
The hurricane forced operators to shut in wells and halt about 10 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, or about 167,230 barrels daily, the federal agency estimated. That's roughly one-third of the oil flowing daily through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. The Gulf of Mexico has 737 manned platforms.
A well shut-in, often accomplished remotely, involves closing safety valves to stop the flow of oil and gas.
[Refineries close, gasoline prices rise as Texas braces for Category 3 hurricane]
Despite the reduced production from the gulf and rising prices of refined products like gasoline, crude oil prices slipped Thursday, weighed by concerns of excess supply. The price of an Alaska barrel of oil has hovered around $50 for the year. Most of Alaska's unrestricted revenue historically comes from oil taxes and royalties, and the lower price and long-term production decline has been a key contributor to the state's $2.5 billion deficit.