Tehran plans to go along with whatever decision OPEC makes at its meeting later this month on whether to extend oil production cuts beyond next month, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.
“All indications are that the members want a renewal of the deal and we will go along with what they agree upon,” Zanganeh said on Saturday on the sidelines of an energy trade show in Tehran.
Producers outside OPEC that joined the oil pact would probably agree to keep the cuts for longer, he said.
Crude oil has surrendered all of its gains since OPEC agreed in November last year to cut output. Brent crude, the global benchmark, slumped to a five-month low of US$46.64 per barrel in New York trading on Friday, bringing prices down 14 percent for this year.
Zanganeh said he expects oil to trade at US$55 per barrel, although he did not say for what period.
OPEC meets on May 25 in Vienna to discuss the output cuts.
Brent ended the week at US$49.10 per barrel. On Nov. 30 last year, when OPEC clinched the deal to curtail oil production for the first time in eight years, oil closed at US$50.47 per barrel.
Iran was allowed to increase its output under the deal as the nation rebuilds from international sanctions that crippled its energy industry.
Since sanctions were eased in January, Iran’s oil production has climbed 34 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Iran’s now exports about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, Zanganeh said.
Last month, Zanganeh told the Islamic Republic news agency that he expected Iran’s oil exports to average 2.4 million barrels per day for the Iranian calendar year that started March 21.
Iran was the third-biggest producer in OPEC last month, after Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
NEXT GENERATION: The new 3-nanometer chip has 28 percent more transistors and offers up to 80 percent faster language model performance than its predecessor MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Wednesday launched a new flagship smartphone chip, Dimensity 9400, made with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) enhanced 3-nanometer technology, aiming to bring more artificial intelligence (AI) applications to edge devices like phones. The Dimensity 9400 is the second smartphone chip using TSMC’s second-generation 3-nanometer technology, after Apple Inc’s A18 Pro chip for the new iPhone 16 series. The new mobile chip has 28 percent more transistors, offers up to 80 percent faster large language model performance and is up to 35 percent more power-efficient than its predecessor, Dimensity 9300, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi Corp (小米),
RSS