Floods in the states halts movement of oil out of stockpiles
The US Midwest has seen its worst flooding in four years and that has shut pipelines and terminals along the Mississippi & Illinois rivers, and around St Louis
Cushing could be the worst to see stoppages as around 200kbpd were booked to be fed out of the Cushing stocks to Wood River, Illinois
Refining may also be scaled down in areas threatened by floods
There's a possible trade in that the next DOE/EIA inventory data is on 6th Jan and we could see stocks rising far more than forecast. It depends on how much the market remembers and factors this news in over the holidays. The bigger trade could be the week after that, if firms draw down extra stocks to catch up with what was held back
Another thing to note is that if we start to see the US hit by big weather events over the next few weeks then we should expect to see the economic impact play out in the data. Get those weather excuses ready Aunty Janet ;-)
Bloomberg has more details on the flood story
