Rising US crude inventories pushed world oil prices down sharply on Friday as traders took profits from a blistering four-week rally.
US crude futures settled US$0.86, or nearly 3 percent, weaker at US$30.68 per barrel. North Sea benchmark Brent crude oil settled US$0.98 weaker at US$29.02, chipping away at a rally that began in late last month when OPEC announced a surprise output cut.
OPEC agreed to slash production 3 percent, or 900,000 barrels per day, starting Nov. 1.
This week's US government data showed crude stocks rose 3.8 million barrels, or 1.3 percent, on strong imports from Iraq and Venezuela.
"Fears of low inventories are misplaced," London's Man brokers said in a daily report.
The data left US crude stocks 5 percent higher than last year, but were not seen as a cure-all to strong oil prices because oil stocks last fall were low leading to a winter in which they hit an all-time low.
The supply cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries surprised traders because they were expecting demand to rise as winter closes in on the Northern Hemisphere.
The stock picture was not uniform, however, as US heating oil, watched closely as temperatures drop, fell to a deficit of 3.7 million barrels compared with the same time last year.
The rally was helped by the threat of further disruption in Nigeria, the world's seventh largest exporter. Nigerian unions are unhappy with government plans to raise petrol prices.
Meanwhile, Iraq resumed pumping oil through its northern pipeline to Turkey yesterday, but the flow stopped after two hours because of technical problems, a Turkish official said.
The official gave no details as to why the pumping, the first in two months, was halted.
In August, Iraq briefly pumped crude oil through the pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean coast for the first time since the war, but the flow was halted because of sabotage and other problems.
Two Turkish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that Iraq resumed pumping oil through the 950km pipeline from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to Turkey's Ceyhan port at 11am.
But the flow later stopped because of unspecified technical problems, one of the officials later said. The official added the oil flow could resume as early as today.
Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted Gurhan Gur, a top official at Ceyhan, as saying a leak in the pipeline was to blame. Gur added that the flow stopped before the oil reached Ceyhan.
The Turkish officials said between 400,000 and 600,000 barrels of oil would be pumped daily.
Reopening the pipeline would be an important step in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry, bringing oil from the vast northern fields to world markets.
Iraq resumed oil sales in June, when tankers began shipping crude that had been in storage at Ceyhan since the war halted exports.
Iraq has since only been pumping oil through its other pipeline in the south.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS