The OPEC cartel called on Saturday for tougher regulations to reduce the impact of speculative investment in the oil market, which it blames for the huge volatility in crude prices.
Oil peaked at a record high above US$147 in July but has since plunged back below US$80 a barrel as the financial crisis rocking markets slows economic growth and thus demand for energy.
“The world oil market has been increasingly affected by financial market shocks from outside the physical oil market,” OPEC spokesman Alipour-Jeddi told the IMF meeting in Washington.
“The recent wild [price] swings demonstrate the need for concerted action to reduce the impact of financial marketsm which are damaging for the oil industry, as well as the global economy as a whole,” he said.
“The existing regulatory framework has proved insufficient to properly contain the negative impact of speculative activity ... which highlights the need to consider further measures,” he said.
He specifically called for the tightening of regulation on speculative trading practices and an extension of US market monitoring.
As oil prices soared in the first half of the year, the US led a chorus of countries in the West wanting OPEC to increase output — which it agreed to — in order to ease the pain. As prices have since tumbled, some OPEC members, most recently Libya, have called on the group to cut output to support prices.
Meanwhile, Iran on Saturday called for stability in the oil market, saying the biggest challenge now was a decline in the demand for oil due to a global economic recession.
“We have to look for market stability because this matter is very important both for producers and consumers,” Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters.
“Studies show that the current situation in the oil market is due to a decline in demand and the global economic conditions,” Nozari said.
Nozari said last week that it would be “unsuitable” for both producers and consumers for oil to dip below US$100 a barrel.
Iran, as OPEC’s second-largest oil exporter, has traditionally opposed any crude output increase by OPEC, arguing that it would cause a fall in prices.
It has also urged fellow OPEC members to respect their output quota to avoid a worsening of the oversupply.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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