Oil capped the longest run of weekly gains since the start of this year amid concern that Saudi Arabia and Russia might not pump enough crude to prevent a supply crunch as Iranian cargoes disappear from world markets.
Futures climbed as much as 0.9 percent in New York on Friday.
Prices might hit US$100 this autumn as US pressure stymies exports from Iran, OPEC’s No. 3 producer, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said.
Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih said the kingdom is boosting production and would supply refiners.
“We’re just seeing a lot of fear about future supply,” Stratas Advisors LLC senior oil market analyst Ashley Petersen said.
Saudi Arabia is juggling intense pressure from US President Donald Trump to boost output and ease high prices.
The kingdom has lifted production almost to a record and might raise it again next month, although doing so will infringe on available spare capacity, limiting Saudi Arabia’s ability to react to other supply shocks.
“The Saudis won’t flood the market and they don’t want to see it oversupplied,” UBS Group AG analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. “Their demand is picking up, because Iran volumes are falling. But the price for the Saudi strategy to cover those supply losses are extreme low spare capacity, and that worries the market.”
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for November delivery on Friday rose to US$74.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices have advanced 1.5 percent for the week, capping the longest streak of weekly increases since January.
Brent for December settlement was little changed at US$84.16 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract was up 1.7 percent this week.
The global benchmark crude traded at a US$9.96 premium to WTI for the same month.
Novak was not alone in predicting a return to three-digit price levels last seen in 2014.
As Iran’s clients cut purchases and Venezuela’s industry struggled, trading giant Mercuria Energy Group Ltd said last month that Brent might spike to more than US$100 in the fourth quarter of this year and Trafigura Group expects it early next year.
While Goldman Sachs Group Inc is not that bullish, the Wall Street bank sees a risk of oil holding above US$80 toward the end of the year.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
NOT OVERLY PESSIMISTIC: While consumer electronics demand remains volatile, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai said that tariffs would have limited effect on the company Chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said revenue this quarter would contract by 4 percent sequentially in the worst-case scenario on softer smartphone demand. Revenue is expected to be between NT$147.2 billion and NT$159.4 billion (US$4.6 billion-US$4.98 billion), compared with NT$153.31 billion last quarter, the company said. MediaTek said demand for smartphone chips would be flat or slide sequentially this quarter, while demand for smart devices and power chips would go up. Mobile phone chips made up 56 percent of the company’s total revenue last quarter. Gross margin of 46 to 49 percent is forecast for this quarter, compared with 48.1 percent last
RSS