Indonesia’s energy ministry yesterday said the country will rejoin OPEC this year to forge a closer relationship with oil suppliers.
I Gusti Nyoman Wiratmadja Pudja, director-general of oil and gas at the ministry, said Indonesia will reactivate its membership in November after all OPEC members approved its application to rejoin the oil cartel at a meeting in Vienna last week.
Indonesia left the group in 2008, after nearly five decades of being the only Asian member amid declining oil reserves and investment.
Indonesia hopes membership will strengthen its ability to secure oil supplies and attract investment to its domestic energy industry.
It is Southeast Asia’s largest oil producer, but the nation of 250 million people has imported for years because of aging wells and exploration failures.
Indonesia, with an oil production target this year of 825,000 barrels per day, would be the fourth-smallest producer in a 13-member OPEC ahead of Libya, Ecuador and Qatar.
The government is sending a delegation to oil producing countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, including Russia and Azerbaijan, for possible supply agreements for crude and fuel.
Meanwhile, oil prices retreated on Thursday after two days of gains as the International Energy Agency predicted that a recent surge in world crude demand was set to end.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery shed US$0.66 to US$60.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
European benchmark Brent oil for July delivery dropped US$0.59 to US$65.11 a barrel in London.
In its monthly report on the oil market, the IEA lifted its demand forecast for this year to 94 million barrels a day, 300,000 barrels per day more than the previous level.
However, the IEA said there were “doubts” that some reasons for the pickup in demand — such as an exceptionally cold European winter early this year that lifted heating demand — would repeat.
Moreover, the agency pointed to “signs of persistent oversupply” in the market in light of still-high US crude output and record production from key OPEC members.
Additional reporting by AFP
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last