Oil rose for a fifth straight week with the global energy crunch set to boost demand for crude as stockpiles decline from the US to China.
West Texas Intermediate for November delivery gained 0.93 percent to US$73.98 a barrel, up 2.79 percent from a week earlier.
Brent crude for November delivery rose 1.09 percent to US$78.09 a barrel, posting a weekly gain of 3.65 percent.
Photo: Reuters
Global onshore crude supplies sank by almost 21 million barrels last week, led by China, according to data analytics firm Kayrros, while US inventories are near a three-year low.
The surge in natural gas prices is expected to force some consumers to switch to oil, tightening the market further ahead of the northern hemisphere winter.
“The market is pricing in a prolonged impact of supply disruptions and the likely storage draws that will be needed to fulfill refinery demand,” Rystad Energy oil markets analyst Louise Dickson wrote in a note.
In terms of oil demand, “no new lockdowns in Europe, robust recovery in China road activity and the US nixing its ban on foreign travelers from November 2021, all lift prospects for upside in the coming quarters,” Dickson said.
Oil has steadily climbed this month after a period of COVID-19-induced demand uncertainty, with some of the world’s largest traders and banks predicting that prices might climb further amid the energy crisis.
Global crude consumption could rise by an additional 370,000 barrels a day if natural gas costs remain high, OPEC has said.
Various underlying oil market gauges are also pointing to an improving market.
The key spread between Brent futures for December and a year later is near US$7, the strongest since 2019. That is a sign traders are positive on the market outlook.
Money managers increased their bullish ICE Brent bets positions to the most in six months, indicating many believe there is yet more room for crude prices to climb.
At the same time, the premium options traders are paying for bearish put options is the smallest since January last year, another indication that traders are less concerned about a pullback in prices.
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
NVIDIA PLATFORM: Hon Hai’s Mexican facility is to begin production early next year and a Taiwan site is to enter production next month, Nvidia wrote on its blog Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest electronics manufacturer, yesterday said it is expanding production capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) servers based on Nvidia Corp’s Blackwell chips in Taiwan, the US and Mexico to cope with rising demand. Hon Hai’s new AI-enabled factories are to use Nvidia’s Omnivores platform to create 3D digital twins to plan and simulate automated production lines at a factory in Hsinchu, the company said in a statement. Nvidia’s Omnivores platform is for developing industrial AI simulation applications and helps bring facilities online faster. Hon Hai’s Mexican facility is to begin production early next year and the
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
AVIATION BOOM: CAL is to renew its passenger and cargo fleets starting next year on record profits as aviation continues to return to pre-pandemic levels China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said it is optimistic about next year’s business outlook, as the airline continues to renew its fleet on expectations that global passenger traffic would maintain steady growth and air cargo demand would remain strong. From next year to 2028, the airline is to welcome a new Boeing Co 787 fleet — 18 787-9 and six 787-10 passenger aircraft — to cover regional and medium to long-haul destinations, CAL chairman Hsieh Shih-chien (謝世謙) said at an investors’ conference in Taipei. The airline would also continue to introduce Airbus SE 321neo passenger planes and Boeing 777F cargo jets,
RSS