Oil steadies as supply concerns counter macroeconomic jitters
Brent crude edged up by 3 cents to $84.45 a barrel by 1332 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 4 cents to $80.07.
Hurricane Idalia strengthened on Tuesday as it headed towards Florida's Gulf Coast after skirting past Cuba.
It is likely to cause power outages and could hit crude production.
U.S. oil producer Chevron evacuated staff from three U.S.
Gulf of Mexico oil production platforms ahead of the hurricane.
Supply concerns have also been heightened by a fire at a Marathon Petroleum refinery last week after a chemical leak ignited two giant storage tanks filled with naphtha.
On Monday the company said it planned to restart units at the 596,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery, the third-largest in the United States.
«Such incidents will remain catalysts in upward movement as the oil community is currently very sensitive to interruptions to any refinery, anywhere in the world,» said John Evans of oil broker PVM.
Meanwhile, Norwegian maintenance outages and threats of labour action at Chevron's two major liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities in Australia — accounting for more than 5% of global LNG capacity — have lifted LNG prices and could bolster oil demand.
However, oil demand worries fester in the world's two biggest economies — the U.S. and China.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday said the U.S.
