Oil prices jumped above US$73 a barrel yesterday in Asia as a weakening US dollar and attacks on oil installations in Nigeria helped push prices to eight-month highs.
Meanwhile, China boosted state-set gasoline and diesel prices to reflect rising global crude costs, days after indicating plans to increase its strategic crude oil reserves by 60 percent over the next five years.
Benchmark crude for August delivery was up US$1.06 to US$72.55 a barrel by midday in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading as high as US$73.38. On Monday, it gained US$2.33 to settle at US$71.49.
Oil has surged from below US$35 in March in part on investor concern that massive US fiscal stimulus spending will eventually spark high inflation. Investors often buy commodities such as crude as a hedge against a weakening US dollar and inflation.
Crude reached US$73.23 a barrel in intraday trading earlier this month, the highest since October.
Prices were also bolstered by another round of attacks on Monday by Nigerian militants, who this time partly damaged and shut down a Royal Dutch Shell offshore oil platform. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer.
In China, the government raised the retail price of gasoline by 8.6 percent and diesel by 9.6 percent. The country’s planning agency said the step, the fourth change in prices this year, was meant to allow prices to fluctuate as crude costs change.
Beijing has used its system of government-set energy prices to shield China’s public from soaring global crude costs, but the government has allowed prices to rise in recent months to curb surging demand.
After the latest change, gasoline will cost 6.37 yuan, or US$0.92 per liter, for the most popular grade in Beijing, and 5.92 yuan, or US$0.86 per liter in Shenyang, a less expensive city in the northeast.
By comparison, gasoline in the US this week ranged from US$0.65 to US$0.78 per liter, US Department of Energy figures showed.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
RSS