Oil prices slipped yesterday as traders took profits from a rally Thursday on concerns over gasoline stocks ahead of peak demand summer driving season.
US crude futures in New York settled down US$0.25 to US$36.46 a barrel while in London, Brent crude fell US$0.30 to US$33.09 a barrel.
The small decline in prices came a day after New York gasoline futures struck an all-time high above US$1.19 a gallon, triggered by a US Environmental Protection Agency decision to drop requests for an easing of environment fuel rules.
The rules would have softened newly implemented low-sulfur gasoline regulations, making it easier for foreign suppliers to meet US standards and thus increasing domestic stockpiles.
Gasoline futures slipped US$0.174 Friday to US$1.1646 a gallon as traders took profits ahead of the weekend.
The softer market Friday did little to tame the bull in the market, analysts said, with supply fears lingering ahead of the US vacation season and violence in the oil-rich Middle East showing no signs of abating.
Grenade attacks on an oil pipeline in Northern Iraq Thursday failed to upset the line's operations, but jangled market nerves. Bombing attacks this week in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, also led to some buying.
Oil producer group OPEC is attempting to meet global oil market needs by producing above its self-imposed quotas, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters at a conference in Texas on Thursday.
The cartel, which officially imposed a fresh 1 million barrel per day (bpd) cut to its output from April 1, is producing 1.7 million bpd above its 23.5 million bpd quota, according to a Petrologistics report Thursday.
OPEC controls roughly half of world oil exports.
The White House said on Friday it eased its economic embargo against OPEC member Libya after the North African country agreed to abandon weapons of mass destruction.
The easing of sanctions will allow US companies to purchase Libyan crude oil and could mean the return of US firms to their dormant oil operations there.
ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess and Occidental Petroleum all have oil lease holdings in Libya that they left behind when expanded US sanctions forced them out in 1986.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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