SINGAPORE: Oil prices posted their strongest opening to a year since 2014 on Tuesday, with crude rising to mid-2015 highs amid large anti-government rallies in Iran and ongoing supply cuts led by OPEC and Russia.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $60.61 a barrel at 0423 GMT, up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, after hitting $60.73 earlier in the day, ther highest since June 2015.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were at $67.12 a barrel, up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, after hitting a May 2015 high of $67.27 a barrel earlier in the day.
It was the first time since January 2014 that the two crude oil benchmarks opened the year above $60 per barrel.
“Growing unrest in Iran set the table for a bullish start to 2018,” the US-based Schork Report said in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Anti-government protesters demonstrated in Iran on Sunday in defiance of a warning by authorities of a crackdown, extending for a fourth day one of the most audacious challenges to the clerical leadership since pro-reform unrest in 2009.
Even without the unrest in Iran, which is a major oil exporter, market sentiment was bullish.
“Falling inventories globally and strong economic growth offset the restart of the Forties pipeline and the resumption of production following a pipeline outage in Libya,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore.
The 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity Forties pipeline system in the North Sea returned to full operations on Dec. 30 after an unplanned shutdown.
Oil markets have been supported by a year of production cuts led by the Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. The cuts started in January 2017 and are scheduled to cover all of 2018.
US commercial crude oil inventories have fallen by almost 20 percent from their historic highs last March, to 431.9 million barrels.
Strong demand growth, especially from China, has also been supporting crude.
“We would not be surprised to see a further (oil price) rise,” said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta.
Only rising US production, which is on the verge of breaking through 10 million bpd, is somewhat hampering the outlook into 2018.
“The higher prices are expected to stoke US shale output,” O’Loughlin said.
US oil production
However, consultancy Rystad Energy said “US crude oil production capacity has reached 10 million barrels per day.”
Oil posts strongest year opening since 2014; Iran unrest pushes up crude
Oil posts strongest year opening since 2014; Iran unrest pushes up crude
Egypt-born Dina Powell McCormick appointed Meta president and vice chairman
- The former Goldman Sachs partner and White House official previously served on Meta’s board of directors
- Powell McCormick, who was born in Cairo and moved to the US as a child, joins the management team and will help guide overall strategy and execution
LONDON: Meta has appointed Egypt-born Dina Powell McCormick as its new president and vice chairman.
The company said on Monday that the former Goldman Sachs partner and White House official, who previously served on Meta’s board of directors, is stepping up into a senior leadership role as the company accelerates its push into artificial intelligence and global infrastructure.
Powell McCormick, who was born in Cairo and moved to the US as a young girl, will join the management team and help guide its overall strategy and execution. She will work closely with Meta’s Compute and infrastructure teams, the company said, overseeing multi-billion-dollar investments in data centers, energy systems and global connectivity, while building new strategic capital partnerships.
“Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth as the company’s president and vice chairman,” Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Powell McCormick has more than 25 years of experience in finance, national security and economic development. She spent 16 years as a partner at Goldman Sachs in senior leadership roles, and served two US presidents, including stints as deputy national security adviser to Donald Trump, and a senior State Department official under George W. Bush.
Most recently, she was vice chair and president of global client services at merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners.
