Oil is slightly lower in Asia-Pac trade, WTI....>

OIL: Oil is slightly lower in Asia-Pac trade, WTI last down $0.26 at $46.97, but

holding most of the gains made during the session on Thursday. WTI rose to highs

of $47.47 yesterday, rising around $1.50 from opening levels. The surge came as

markets assessed the damage from Tropical Storm Harvey which hit again earlier

this week, bringing flooding and severely impacting US refining capacity - there

are reports that around 30% of US refining capacity is offline. The shutdowns

have induced the US to tap their strategic oil reserves for the first time since

2021 yesterday which contributed to the upside move in WTI.

- Harvey has had more of a pronounced impact on gasoline which rose again

yesterday, and is now up over $30 in the past 2 weeks.

- A Goldman Sachs report released yesterday said they saw outages in US refining

infrastructure for several months to come.

- Markets will now look ahead to Baker Hughes US Rig Count later today, headline

rigs fell for the second consecutive release last week, dropping to 759.

- MNI technical analysis sees support at $52.44 - Hourly resistance Aug 28 now

support, resistance is seen at $52.90 - High Aug 31.