Oil prices eased on world markets on Friday as traders locked in profits after a rally earlier in the week sparked by a surprise production cut by the OPEC cartel.
New York's benchmark light sweet crude November contract slipped US$0.13 to US$28.16 in late trading.
The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery dipped US$0.31 per barrel to US$26.50 in London trading.
PHOTO: AP
"After the news from OPEC this week, there is a bit of profit-taking into the weekend," said GNI trader Kevin Blemkin.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries surprised oil markets on Wednesday by agreeing to trim its overall production ceiling by 900,000 barrels per day to 24.5 million barrels, sending prices soaring.
The decision followed a sharp fall in world oil prices in the month ahead of the meeting at its Vienna headquarters.
But with supplies rising from post-war Iraq -- a member of OPEC but not part of its quota system -- and rivals such as Russia, many analysts think prices could start to weaken again.
"I think prices will keep deteriorating next week," said Kevin Blemkin, a trader at GNI.
"If there was no follow-through in the rally [this week], I'm not sure we're going get one."
Meanwhile, traders paid close attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the US.
Putin ate a ceremonial glazed doughnut to open a service station in New York on Friday, and a US senator used the occasion to bash OPEC.
The moment was a small but sweet victory for the Russian oil baron Vagit Alekperov: The Getty gas station he bought in Manhattan three years ago was renamed on Friday after his own huge oil company, Lukoil.
Alekperov wanted US consumers at the pump to understand that they need Russian oil and that companies like his are ready to provide it. For the last two years, oil has become an increasingly powerful bond between the US, the world's largest consumer, and Russia, among the largest producers.
But Alekperov's trip to the US as part of Putin's entourage may partly be in the hope that the Bush administration could help Lukoil with a crucial oil interest outside Russia: the huge West Qurna field in Iraq.
Lukoil is among several foreign companies that negotiated contracts and memorandums of understanding with the government of Saddam Hussein to develop oil fields once UN sanctions were lifted. The sanctions are now gone, but so is the old government. Lukoil and the other companies now worry that the agreements they spent years and millions of dollars to develop will be abrogated by the new Iraqi authorities.
People close to Putin and Alekperov said that they expected Putin to raise the question of protecting the Russian oil contracts with US President GEorge W. Bush during their weekend meeting at Camp David.
"The Iraqi question will clearly be on the agenda of the summit," Alekperov said in an interview in New York on Thursday evening. "I think the president of a country and the government should help their own companies."
Russian-owned Lukoil Oil Co acquired Getty Petroleum and its 1,300 US gasoline stations in November 2000, and the Manhattan station is one of about 150 in the US Northeast that Lukoil will rebrand over the next two years.
Bright red Lukoil flags fluttered and US and Russian security men in dark suits held photographers and reporters at bay as Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, greeted Putin at the curb of the full-service station, then accompanied him inside where bills are paid and beverages and snacks are sold.
"When I showed the president of Russia a Krispy Kreme doughnut and he ate it and said it was good, that was one of the more surreal moments I've had in politics," Schumer reported.
Putin made no public remarks and stayed only 10 minutes.
After Putin's motorcade roared off, Schumer, noting that Russia is not a member of OPEC and so Lukoil is not bound by its price-boosting output limits, said: "The more competition there is in oil, particularly against OPEC, the better New York will do and the better America will do."
He said New Yorkers should not expect immediate reductions in their gas prices but said: "I hope OPEC is hurt by this so they don't have the stranglehold any more."
Only a few pedestrians stopped to check out the scene from across the street -- one laughed and shouted "Who cares?" when told the Russian president was coming -- and a couple of vehicles tried to pull into the station for refueling, scores of security vans and police cars notwithstanding.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process