OPEC members should wait until next month before deciding on further cuts in their crude oil output, Nigerian Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru said yesterday.
OPEC members have already reduce their output by 1.2 million barrels a day and plan to enforce another cut of 500,000 barrels a day starting next month.
The cuts are aimed at keeping oil prices falling too much in the face of weak demand and increased production by non-OPEC countries.
Asked whether there is a need for additional cuts in OPEC supplies, Daukoru said: "We cannot judge the market right now. We'll have to wait till Feb. 1," he said.
Daukoru was New Delhi to attend an international conference on energy.
Pressed on whether OPEC's output cut totaling 1.7 million barrels a day would be sufficient to buoy prices, he told Dow Jones Newswires: "I don't know. February is not yet here. When we implement [the February cuts] ... we will see how the market is going to react."
His comments, which echoed similar views expressed by the Kuwaiti oil minister on Monday, highlighted divisions within the cartel on whether it needs to act now to try to put a floor under oil prices.
On Monday, Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez said his country was pushing for an emergency OPEC meeting and that some members backed this idea.
Saudi Arabia, which has so far kept a public silence on the issue, holds the key in tilting any decision within the OPEC. The kingdom's oil minister, Ali Naimi, was also attending the conference in New Delhi.
Daukoru said oil prices had been softening because of milder-than-usual winter weather and substantial oversupply in the market.
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
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
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
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