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SINGAPORE: Oil prices traded flat, holding well above $136 in Asia
on Friday, as global concern mounted over the record-high price of
crude.
New York’s main oil futures contract, light
sweet crude for July delivery, eased eight cents to $136.66 a barrel
from its close at $136.74 on Thursday at the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
Brent North Sea crude for July delivery eased 16
cents to $135.93 a barrel from a close of $136.09 on Thursday in
London.
The market seesawed sharply, losing more than $5
a barrel in early trading before staging a late rally.
“Anything can happen,” said Tetsu Emori, a
fund manager with Astmax asset management in Tokyo, describing the
market as “quite choppy.”
Emori said near-term trading should fall with
the $120 to $140 range.
“The market is looking for the next
direction,” he said.
New York crude struck a historic high of $139.12
on June 6 when it surged a record-breaking $10.75 in one day. Brent
crude hit a new peak of $138.12 the same day.
The soaring prices have stoked fears for the
global economy and sparked protests around the world.
“These high prices are not sustainable and
jeopardize economic growth globally,” said Nobuo Tanaka, executive
director of the International Energy Agency, energy policy adviser
to major industrialized countries.
A South Korean truckers’ union said it would
strike from Friday to protest rising fuel prices, while an
opposition party in Malaysia said it would bring 10,000 people into
the streets Friday afternoon.
Police in Indian Kashmir detained 70 people
Thursday over rising fuel prices.
Thai fishermen called for global fuel protests,
saying the soaring price of oil prevented them from fishing and
damaged trade. Truck drivers in Thailand also threatened job action.
Fishermen have led waves of protests against
escalating fuel prices in Europe, where lorry drivers blocked roads
in protest.
Finance ministers from the Group of Eight rich
nations were to discuss ways to limit the economic damage of soaring
oil prices at a meeting in Japan beginning Friday.
On June 22, Saudi Arabia is organizing a summit
of oil consumers and producers to discuss the record-high price of
crude.
Saudi Arabia, a close Western ally and the top
OPEC oil producer, has come under huge US pressure to boost output
to help end volatility in world markets.
But Chakib Khelil, acting president of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel, on
Thursday ruled out an increase in output, saying supply is bigger
than demand and there is over-production estimated at 500,000
barrels a day.
A spokesman for the president of Nigeria, a
major African crude producer, said his country plans to double its
oil production by 2010 from two million to four million barrels a
day.
Nigeria has lost about a quarter of its daily
production because of unrest. Anglo-Dutch oil firm Shell said it
would not be able to honor June and July contracts from its Bonny
terminal in Nigeria after a militant group sabotaged its key crude
supply pipelines.
Emori said such fundamental factors are now
secondary to psychological ones in moving a market where
“short-term traders or speculators” are operating.
“That’s why the market is quite choppy at
the moment,” Emori said. “They are not looking at the
longer-term. They are just looking at five minutes, 10 minutes.”
-- AFP
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