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.
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
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