Tropical Storm Nicholas has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and will soon hit the U.S.

Global oil prices for benchmark grades are rising moderately as a new hurricane approaches the Gulf of Mexico, while oil producers in the region have not yet recovered from Hurricane Ida. This is evidenced by trading data on Tuesday, September 14.

Thus, November futures on Brent grew by $0.58 (0.79%) to $74.09 per barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. By the end of Monday trading, these contracts grew by $0.59 (0.8%) to $73.51 per barrel, the highest level since July 30.

The price of WTI futures for October grew by $0.58 per barrel to $71.03 per barrel at NYMEX. Those contracts rose $0.73 (1.1%) to $70.45 a barrel on Monday, the highest since August 3.

The spread between current Brent and WTI contracts is now $3.06 in favor of Brent.

The day before it became known that Tropical Storm Nicholas will soon hit the US states of Louisiana and Texas, although the US has not yet recovered from Hurricane Ida.

And today, the U.S. National Hurricane Watch reported that Storm Nicholas has strengthened to a Saffir-Simpson Scale Category 1 hurricane. At the moment, the maximum wind speed within the elements is 33.3 m/s. The hurricane is about 75 km southwest of the port city of Freeport and is moving northeast at about 17 kph.

US President Joe Biden has already signed a decree declaring an emergency situation in the state of Louisiana due to the approach of Nicholas and ordered to provide local authorities with federal aid.