Atlantic Hurricane Drought Gives Energy and Catastrophe Insurers a Break

The North Atlantic has gone this deep into the season without a hurricane for the first time in more than a century. Eight named storms have formed, but each was disrupted before developing into a hurricane.
El Niño is contributing to unusually strong vertical wind shear across hurricane-forming regions of the Atlantic, making it harder for storms to organize and strengthen.
The unusually quiet season has important market implications. Gulf energy infrastructure has avoided hurricane-driven refinery and offshore platform shutdowns during an already tight fuel market, while property-catastrophe insurers and reinsurers face fewer storm-related claims. If the pattern continues, lower catastrophe losses could support underwriting margins for insurers with significant hurricane exposure.