Cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia has “breathed life back into OPEC” and made the country more optimistic about the outlook for oil than it has been for several years, Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid al-Falih said.
The success of the collaboration between the world’s two largest oil exporters is clear, al-Falih said.
COLLABORATION
Photo: AFP
The relationship, which involves coordinated production cuts to eliminate an oversupply and joint energy investments, brings both short and long-term gains, he said, after a meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak.
Al-Falih was speaking at the start of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s historic first visit to Russia to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two nations — joint architects of the supply agreement between OPEC and other producers that has boosted prices — are looking at ways to extend and deepen their relationship.
Russia is achieving its goals in the accord with OPEC and the oil market is rebalancing step by step, Novak said.
Russia may agree to extend the oil-supply agreement until the end of next year, Putin said on Wednesday, although he would wait to make a decision nearer the expiry of the existing pact in March.
The arrangement that took effect in January benefits oil consumers as well as producers because it guarantees a “stable market,” he said.
The Saudi courtship of Russia reflects a convergence of interests between the nations, both of which want to spur a recovery in crude prices.
POLITICAL TIES
It is also a recognition by Riyadh of the changing political balance in the Middle East after Putin successfully countered indecisive US efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to