World oil prices jumped on Friday after the US government warned of possible attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria, which is Africa's biggest producer of crude.
Analysts said prices were also boosted by the latest US employment data, which suggested solid demand for energy ahead.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, surged US$1.26 to close at US$59.14 a barrel.
December Brent North Sea crude traded in London settled at US$59.15, gaining US$1.28 from Thursday.
Both the benchmark contracts had slumped Thursday on fears of slowing US economic growth. But sharp upward revisions to payroll numbers published on Friday helped prices recover.
The main spur came from a warning from the US embassy in Nigeria that a militant Niger Delta group may have completed plans to launch attacks on oil facilities in the restive region.
"Driving prices were concerns about the Nigerian threat reported by the US embassy," energy analyst James Williams of WTRG Economics said.
"This is happening right before a weekend. You typically get a bigger bounce in prices heading into the weekend, as traders fear that over a weekend only bad things can happen," he said.
"The attacks allegedly will be carried out sometime during the first week of November and will include 10 to 20 simultaneous bombings of land-based targets and a series of separate attacks on oil installations in which expatriate workers will be taken hostage," the statement on the embassy's Web site said.
There were no details available as to the specific targets of the attack, it said.
The statement added that the kidnapping on Thursday of a Briton and a US citizen was "a continuation of the violence seen since earlier this year in the Niger Delta region."
The two expatriates, working for Norwegian oil services firm Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), were kidnapped in southern Bayeslsa State and taken to an unknown location.
"Oil prices were down the most part of the week. There has been some short-covering ahead of the weekend," AG Edwards analyst Bill O'Grady said.
"The troubles in Nigeria helped the rebound," he said.
Alaron Trading analyst Phil Flynn said that crude futures were also lifted by US jobs data "that erased some fears of a hard landing and could mean a bigger demand [for energy] than previously expected."
The US labor market displayed fresh signs of vigor last month as the jobless rate fell to a five-year low despite a weaker-than-expected addition of 92,000 jobs, non-farm payrolls data showed on Friday.
Crude futures have been pressured this week also by doubts over the OPEC cartel's promised production cut of 1.2 million barrels per day.
"Typically good news on the US economy from a consumer standpoint means oil prices go up," Williams said.
"On the other hand as we look forward into 2007, there's going to be more non-OPEC production coming on line. And it looks like OPEC is only being 50 percent effective in its planned cuts," he said.
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