Oil prices continued to decrease on Friday as a key U.S. pipeline restarted on late Wednesday and runs with almost half of its capacity on Thursday.
International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $66.78 per barrel at 0650 GMT for a 0.40% decrease after closing Thursday at $67.05 a barrel.
American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $63.66 per barrel at the same time for a 0.15% fall after it ended the previous session at $63.76 a barrel.
The US’s largest pipeline, Colonial carries 2.5 million barrels a day of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. After ransomware hackers broke into some of its networks on last Friday, demand was curbed due to disrupted refinery production in the region.
The production decrease in some refineries that are fed from the Georgia-headquartered pipeline also forced supplier firms in the area to reduce output.
The largest oil refinery in the US, Motiva in Port Arthur, Texas, which processes over 600,000 barrels of oil per day, halted operations due to the attack.
However, Colonial Pipeline, operator of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, said Wednesday it is restarting operations after being shut down for five days due to a cyberattack.
The pipeline returned to service after that cyberattack and on Thursday each of its markets received product from it. The Colonial runs with almost half of its capacity.
Also, coronavirus cases remained high in major oil consumer India. The country recorded more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for a second straight day on Thursday.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr