Oil prices held above US$30 a barrel yesterday as a looming general strike in OPEC producer Nigeria raised fears of a reduced supply during the season of peak northern hemisphere winter demand.
US light crude futures slipped US$0.12 to US$30.29 a barrel after profit-taking by dealers on Tuesday. Oil prices have risen 12 percent since the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut its production to 24.5 million barrels per day (bpd) at its Sept. 24 meeting.
OPEC's curbs will remove 900,000 bpd from the world market from Nov. 1 just as refineries in the Northern Hemisphere ramp up production of winter heating fuels.
The USEnergy Information Administration said on Tuesday the cut will likely prevent a large build in US oil stocks at the end of the year and keep crude oil prices at an above-average US$30 a barrel through winter.
US government data due yesterday will provide oil dealers with the latest snapshot on supplies in the US, which consumes a fifth of world oil demand of about 76 million bpd.
Analysts forecast US crude stocks to rise by 1 million barrels in the week to Oct. 3 as refinery processing rates dip due to seasonal maintenance.
Traders are keenly watching OPEC-member Nigeria, where the main trade union, the Nigeria Labor Congress, has called a strike for today against a government move to deregulate fuel prices.
"Worries about potential strike in Nigeria are really pushing the market," said David Thurtell, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo held consultations on Tuesday to try to head off the strike.
Nigeria's state oil company NNPC was preparing contingency measures to try to ensure normal output if oil workers join the strike, a Nigerian oil industry source said on Tuesday.
Iraq also remains a wildcard with the security of its crucial oil infrastructure still uncertain.
Colonel Robert Nicholson of the US Army Corp of Engineers in Tikrit said on Tuesday that the second of Iraq's two export pipelines, running from the north to the Turkish Mediterranean coast, was being repaired on schedule following sabotage and would resume operations in mid-October to pump pre-war capacity of 800,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk crude by the end of the year.
But analysts remain sceptical.
"I think the last four to five months have shown that as soon as they are repaired someone has sabotaged them again," Thurtell said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique