World crude prices firmed on Friday after news of a potential terrorist threat to energy installations in the Gulf and specifically in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, rose US$0.39 to close at US$60.75 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for December delivery added US$0.31 cents to settle at US$61.08 a barrel.
Western naval forces said they feared possible attacks on oil installations in the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia said its facilities were a "high-probability potential target," but that tight security measures were in place.
"All of us immediately looked up when we heard the news, but we also got reassuring news from the navy [coalition] that at least they are covering the water approaches," Societe General analyst Deborah White said.
"The biggest danger is at sea, because you can come from so many different directions and you can have a relatively small boat that could be carrying a relatively large bomb," she said.
"But if in fact they have taken the normal attack-at-sea precautions then they are probably safe, which is why it was only a momentary blip" in oil prices, White added.
Saudi Arabia pumps more than 9 million barrels of oil per day and sits on a quarter of global oil reserves.
Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki said threats to his country's oil facilities by terrorist groups were ongoing.
"There are preventive measures in any installation, be it Ras Tannura or others, to prevent any terrorist operation," he said.
Crude futures had traded in negative territory for much of Friday as worries over output eased in major oil producers Norway and Nigeria.
Both New York and London Brent contracts closed down more than a dollar on Thursday due to profit-taking.
That came after crude prices had jumped more than two dollars on Wednesday owing to renewed supply concerns as US heating stocks fell ahead of the northern hemisphere winter.
The fall in US inventories suggested to some traders that the 11-nation OPEC cartel was going through on a promise a week ago to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels a day.
OPEC is battling to support crude prices, which stand about 25 percent lower than record highs above US$78 reached in July and August.
In Norway, meanwhile, state energy giant Statoil resumed production at its Snorre A platform in the North Sea after a two-week halt caused by safety problems.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS