Crude oil prices hit 17-month lows this week as recession fears sparked renewed demand concerns, despite news that OPEC would cut oil output by 1.5 million barrels per day.
Brent North Sea crude slumped to US$61.00 per barrel, the lowest point since March last year.
New York’s light sweet crude tumbled to US$62.65, which was last seen in May last year.
“Crude oil is heading lower again ... on fears that the [OPEC] cut might not be sufficient to compensate the shortfall of demand due to a global recession,” Dresdner Kleinwort analyst Peter Fertig said.
OPEC said on Friday that it would slash output from Nov. 1 in an attempt to stabilize plunging oil prices, despite a looming worldwide recession.
Analysts had expected OPEC to cut its daily output by at least 1 million barrels per day as a global economic slowdown amid a worsening financial crisis slashes demand for energy.
In later trading on Friday, New York crude was US$4.59 lower at US$63.25 per barrel and Brent oil slid US$4.30 to US$61.62.
Global stock markets plunged on Friday, with London losing more than nine percent as it struck a five-year low on news that Britain’s economy shrank in the third quarter, placing it perilously close to a recession.
OPEC, which produces 40 percent of world crude, announced a cut to production in a bid to support crude prices which “have witnessed a dramatic collapse — unprecedented in speed and magnitude,” an official statement said.
Crude futures in London and New York have plunged close to 60 percent from record highs of above US$147 a barrel reached only three months ago when supply concerns sent prices soaring.
The crude market was also dampened as the dollar strengthened against the euro and pound. A stronger US unit tends to sap demand for dollar-priced commodities like crude oil and gold, which become more expensive for buyers holding weaker currencies.
The White House denounced what it called OPEC’s “anti-market” decision to cut production, even though oil prices subsequently slumped on fears of a global recession.
The cartel’s president Chakib Khelil said the production cut would not hurt the global economy.
By Friday, New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, had tumbled to US$63.16 per barrel from US$79.96 for the November contract a week earlier.
Brent North Sea crude for December slumped to US$62.62, compared with US$76.56 last week.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS