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.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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