Oil prices finished above US$63 a barrel on Friday, ending a bullish week as traders bet on blustery weather moving across the US and more production cuts from OPEC.
Light sweet crude for January delivery rose US$0.30 to settle at US$63.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude settled at US$64.62, up US$0.36, on London's ICE Futures exchange.
"Prices ended higher for the same reasons we've been talking about all week -- colder weather, output cuts and a report showing US inventory falling pretty steadily for the past few weeks," said Tom Bentz, a broker at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York. "The market continued to hold on and closed out on a positive note."
Oil prices were down during most of the day, but bounced back in the last hours of trading.
"Overall the fundamentals near-term look pretty bullish," said Alaron Trading Corp analyst Phil Flynn.
Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria's oil minister and president of the 11-member OPEC, said the group is likely to trim production again and he expects a cut of at least 500,000 barrels a day.
"There is likely to be some further trimming, the actual amount will depend on the circumstances," Daukoru said. While the specific amount will be decided at the OPEC meeting based on data and trends.
"I don't expect anything less" than 500,000 barrels per day to be cut, he said.
That echoed comments on Thursday from Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez, who also said OPEC could cut production by half a million barrels a day when it meets on Dec. 14 in Abuja.
Also boosting oil prices was a major snowstorm that blanketed the Plains and Midwest on Thursday and Friday, dumping as much as 46cm of snow in some places. Another cold front is moving toward the Northeast this weekend, promising to blow away the unseasonably warm weather in the region.
Natural gas settled at US$8.422 per 1,000 cubic feet, down US$0.42.2. Prices were weighed down by the Institute of Supply Management's report showing that the US manufacturing sector contracted last month,the first time the sector contracted since April 2003.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI