Oil prices rebounded higher on Friday, with prices in New York closing above US$50 a barrel for the first time, as traders fretted about Nigerian oil production amid a threatened rebel uprising.
The light sweet crude November futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed up US$0.48 at US$50.12 a barrel, posting a record close, on the latest Nigerian worries.
In London, the price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November rose US$0.24 to close at US$46.62 a barrel.
Oil prices hit all-time peaks of US$50.47 in out-of-hours deals in New York on Tuesday and US$46.80 in London on Tuesday amid unrest in Nigeria.
"There are still concerns about Nigeria," said New York-based Refco oil analyst Marshall Steeves, referring to Friday's closing price spike.
Unrest in Iraq and disruption to Gulf of Mexico oil output, caused by recent hurricanes that have struck Florida, have also stoked oil prices in recent weeks, tightening US domestic stocks.
"Concern about Nigeria, because a lot of Nigerian oil goes to making gasoline," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an oil trader with Fimat in New York.
"I don't know if worries about gasoline inventories are justified, [there] appears to be plenty of gasoline in stockpiles," Fitzpatrick said, adding traders often worry about supplies on Fridays as they depart for the weekend.
Traders are holding their breath that the Nigerian government, in peace talks with rebels, will be able to stave off a threatened uprising by the rebels, who said they would mount an all-out war on the government if their demands were not met. The country is a key supplier to the US and Africa's biggest oil exporter.
Asari's Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force has threatened oil installations and asked foreign oil workers to quit the region. It is one of the militias fighting for supremacy over control of the west African country's illegal oil traffic.
The group claims to be fighting for the rights of the ethnic Ijaws living around the center of Nigeria's Niger delta oil industry, which turns out about 2.3 million barrels per day.
However, just after the New York market closed, two other militias in the delta, the People's Volunteer Force and the Niger Delta Vigilante, reportedly promised they would stop fighting government forces and hand in their weapons.
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
‘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
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
RSS