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.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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