Crude oil prices soared past US$61 a barrel to two-week highs as news broke that the ruler of the world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, died yesterday.
Minutes after the news of the Saudi Arabian king's death broke out in Singapore, light, sweet crude for September delivery spiked US$0.60 to reach US$61.11 a barrel, its highest in more than two weeks. It is currently at US$61.07 a barrel, up US$0.31.
Prices were also supported by Iran's threat on Sunday to restart its nuclear enrichment program, sparking fears that tension between Tehran and Western nations could disrupt oil supplies from OPEC's second's largest exporter.
Oil futures hit an intraday record of US$62.10 a barrel on July 7. Prices are around 40 percent higher than year-ago levels but would need to reach US$90 to reach the all-time inflated adjusted high set in 1980.
Heating oil was up by a penny and a half to at US$1.6915 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline gained a cent at US$1.7404 a gallon.
September Brent futures at London's International Petroleum Exchange opened US$0.48 up at US$59.85 a barrel, before slipping to US$59.60.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iran on Sunday threatened to restart uranium reprocessing work if negotiators from Britain, France and Germany do not immediately offer a promised package of incentives to entice Tehran to freeze its nuclear program.
Analysts believe the world's excess capacity is limited, which means producer nations are not likely to meet demand if supply is disrupted from geopolitical tensions or other unplanned outages, such as weather-linked shutdowns.
Strikes, terrorism, oil disputes in Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran helped push prices upward all of last year.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
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