Oil prices briefly spiked to a new record above US$147 a barrel on Friday as rising hostilities between the West and Iran and unrest in Nigeria sent investors rushing back to energy markets.
A decline in the US dollar and concerns about an oil worker strike in Brazil contributed to the higher price.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery soared to an all-time high of US$147.27 a barrel before settling at US$145.08, up US$3.43.
That was slightly below last Thursday’s settlement record of US$145.29 a barrel.
On London’s ICE futures exchange, Brent crude settled at US$144.49, up US$2.46.
Crude had fallen by nearly US$10 a barrel over two days at the start of the week, but rebounded by more than US$5 a barrel on Thursday as anxiety heightened about Middle East and Nigerian supplies being disrupted.
The resurgence in crude prices stokes concern that US$4-a-gallon (US$1.05 a liter) gasoline is here to stay for US drivers and means home heating could get much more expensive this winter.
In other NYMEX trading, heating oil futures rose to a trading record of US$4.1586 before settling at US$4.0766 a gallon, up US$0.0392.
Gasoline futures also rose to a new trading record of US$3.631 a gallon before finishing at US$3.5632, up US$0.0523.
“If you think your gasoline bills are expensive now, wait till you get your home heating bill this winter,” said Stephen Schork, an analyst and trader in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
While US consumer demand for gasoline is waning as people try to save money, other factors are keeping energy costs high: The weak dollar, refineries cutting back on production and resilient demand for diesel fuel. Diesel is a distillate fuel produced and distributed similarly to heating oil, so diesel demand often affects the price of heating oil.
The other big reason gasoline and heating bills are likely to stay high is unrest in the Middle East and Africa.
“The bulls are still able to spin a bullish case on this — not based so much on the fundamentals, but on a lot of ‘What if?’ scenarios,” Schork said.
Iran, which has long been under UN scrutiny for its uranium enrichment program, has been testing missiles this week, including a new missile capable of reaching Israel. On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the oil-producing nation that the US would defend its allies, and Iran responded with another missile launch. Neither the US nor Israel has ruled out a military strike on Iran.
On Friday, there were rumors of Israeli military exercises taking place in Iraqi airspace, which were reportedly denied by Israeli officials.
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS