An oil price of US$60 a barrel is “normal,” OPEC president Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said in Beijing yesterday.
It is necessary to “rebuild stability” in oil markets, de Vasconcelos said at the Global Think Tank Summit, based on a translation of his comments on the conference’s Web site.
On June 23, OPEC secretary-general Abdalla el-Badri said at a press conference in Vienna that oil prices as high as US$80 wouldn’t jeopardize a worldwide economic recovery.
In Asian trading yesterday, crude oil prices recovered from earlier losses but investors fretted over the US economy after the jobless rate surged to a 26-year high.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, firmed US$0.29 in afternoon trade to US$67.02 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month gained US$0.16 to US$66.81.
Oil prices are likely to remain under pressure until economic data point to a firm turnaround in US fortunes, which will in turn lead to stronger energy demand, Merrill Lynch analysts said in a report.
“Beyond any help arising from equities ... crude oil market fundamentals look fragile. No doubt, a rally in equities or a weaker US dollar could support higher oil prices,” they said.
“But anyway you cut it, oil demand is still extremely weak ... In sum, we believe oil prices will struggle to push higher over the next three months,” they said.
OPEC, which pumps 40 percent of the world’s crude oil, “will not go for any further increase in production” as global supplies remained in surplus, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Abdullah al-Sabah said on Thursday.
The group, which kept oil production quotas unchanged at a summit on May 28, is scheduled to hold a policy meeting to discuss the issue on Sept. 9 in Vienna.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’