Oil Prices Up 2% As Gulf Coast Producers Grapple With Tropical Storm

Oil prices climbed 2% early Thursday morning as Tropical Storm Francine landed on the coast of Louisiana.  Earlier in the week, media reported that field operators in the Gulf were evacuating crews from offshore platforms ahead of the storm. Chevron, Shell, and Exxon were among the companies that paused work on some platforms in anticipation of the storm. Woodside Energy shut in an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Francine’s landfall. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Exxon planned to slash production at the 522,500-bpd…