Rising US crude inventories pushed world oil prices down sharply on Friday as traders took profits from a blistering four-week rally.
US crude futures settled US$0.86, or nearly 3 percent, weaker at US$30.68 per barrel. North Sea benchmark Brent crude oil settled US$0.98 weaker at US$29.02, chipping away at a rally that began in late last month when OPEC announced a surprise output cut.
OPEC agreed to slash production 3 percent, or 900,000 barrels per day, starting Nov. 1.
This week's US government data showed crude stocks rose 3.8 million barrels, or 1.3 percent, on strong imports from Iraq and Venezuela.
"Fears of low inventories are misplaced," London's Man brokers said in a daily report.
The data left US crude stocks 5 percent higher than last year, but were not seen as a cure-all to strong oil prices because oil stocks last fall were low leading to a winter in which they hit an all-time low.
The supply cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries surprised traders because they were expecting demand to rise as winter closes in on the Northern Hemisphere.
The stock picture was not uniform, however, as US heating oil, watched closely as temperatures drop, fell to a deficit of 3.7 million barrels compared with the same time last year.
The rally was helped by the threat of further disruption in Nigeria, the world's seventh largest exporter. Nigerian unions are unhappy with government plans to raise petrol prices.
Meanwhile, Iraq resumed pumping oil through its northern pipeline to Turkey yesterday, but the flow stopped after two hours because of technical problems, a Turkish official said.
The official gave no details as to why the pumping, the first in two months, was halted.
In August, Iraq briefly pumped crude oil through the pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean coast for the first time since the war, but the flow was halted because of sabotage and other problems.
Two Turkish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that Iraq resumed pumping oil through the 950km pipeline from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to Turkey's Ceyhan port at 11am.
But the flow later stopped because of unspecified technical problems, one of the officials later said. The official added the oil flow could resume as early as today.
Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted Gurhan Gur, a top official at Ceyhan, as saying a leak in the pipeline was to blame. Gur added that the flow stopped before the oil reached Ceyhan.
The Turkish officials said between 400,000 and 600,000 barrels of oil would be pumped daily.
Reopening the pipeline would be an important step in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry, bringing oil from the vast northern fields to world markets.
Iraq resumed oil sales in June, when tankers began shipping crude that had been in storage at Ceyhan since the war halted exports.
Iraq has since only been pumping oil through its other pipeline in the south.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in