RIYADH: Oil stayed below $80 amid reports OPEC+, due to meet on Monday, has discussed how to increase output faster in the coming months, while the White House said it had spoken with Saudi Arabia about oil prices.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil for November delivery rose 85 cents to $75.88 a barrel Friday. Brent crude oil for December delivery rose 97 cents to $79.28 a barrel.
Wholesale gasoline for November delivery was unchanged at $2.25 a gallon. November heating oil rose 4 cents to $2.38 a gallon. November natural gas fell 25 cents to $5.62 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Four OPEC+ sources said on Thursday the group was looking at going beyond an existing deal to add 400,000 barrels per day to supply each month, Reuters reported.
A senior aide to President Joe Biden raised the issue of oil prices in conversations this week with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the White House.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met in Saudi Arabia with the Crown Prince on Tuesday to discuss the war in Yemen. But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said oil was also “of concern” and on the agenda.
Oil is also finding support as a surge in natural gas prices globally prompts power producers to move away from gas. Generators in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Middle East have started switching fuels.
Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices surged to a record high this week on sustained demand from China amid a power crunch and high gas prices in Europe as the winter season begins.
The average LNG price for November delivery into Northeast Asia was estimated at about $32 per metric million British thermal units (mmBtu), up nearly 20 percent from the previous week, industry sources told Reuters.
Chinese buyers are seeking more cargoes despite record prices, bidding above market rates as the winter season starts with the country’s gas inventory not full, trade sources said.
Sharply higher oil and gas prices have pushed annual inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro to its highest in more than a decade in September.
The European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday that inflation came in at 3.4 percent, up from 3.0 percent in August and the highest since 2008.
The overall inflation level was boosted by a jolting 17.4 percent increase in energy prices.
The world cannot afford to underinvest in oil, Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.
Recent periods of underinvestment risk price shocks and energy poverty for developing countries, he said.
Oil closes the week below $80 as OPEC+ said to plan supply increase; LNG at record
https://arab.news/6v6w7
Oil closes the week below $80 as OPEC+ said to plan supply increase; LNG at record
- OPEC+ sources said the group was looking at going beyond an existing deal to add 400,000 barrels per day to supply each month
- Average LNG price for delivery to North Asia rose 20 percent from last week
Multilateralism strained, but global cooperation adapting: WEF report
DUBAI: Overall levels of international cooperation have held steady in recent years, with smaller and more innovative partnerships emerging, often at regional and cross-regional levels, according to a World Economic Forum report.
The third edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Thursday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
“The takeaway of the Global Cooperation Barometer is that while multilateralism is under real strain, cooperation is not ending, it is adapting,” Ariel Kastner, head of geopolitical agenda and communications at WEF, told Arab News.
Developed alongside McKinsey & Company, the report uses 41 metrics to track global cooperation in five areas: Trade and capital; innovation and technology; climate and natural capital; health and wellness; and peace and security.
The pace of cooperation differs across sectors, with peace and security seeing the largest decline. Cooperation weakened across every tracked metric as conflicts intensified, military spending rose and multilateral mechanisms struggled to contain crises.
By contrast, climate and nature, alongside innovation and technology, recorded the strongest increases.
Rising finance flows and global supply chains supported record deployment of clean technologies, even as progress remained insufficient to meet global targets.
Despite tighter controls, cross-border data flows, IT services and digital connectivity continued to expand, underscoring the resilience of technology cooperation amid increasing restrictions.
The report found that collaboration in critical technologies is increasingly being channeled through smaller, aligned groupings rather than broad multilateral frameworks.
This reflects a broader shift, Kastner said, highlighting the trend toward “pragmatic forms of collaboration — at the regional level or among smaller groups of countries — that advance both shared priorities and national interests.”
“In the Gulf, for example, partnerships and investments with Asia, Europe and Africa in areas such as energy, technology and infrastructure, illustrate how focused collaboration can deliver results despite broader, global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, health and wellness and trade and capital remained flat.
Health outcomes have so far held up following the pandemic, but sharp declines in development assistance are placing growing strain on lower- and middle-income countries.
In trade, cooperation remained above pre-pandemic levels, with goods volumes continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than the global economy, while services and selected capital flows showed stronger momentum.
The report also highlights the growing role of smaller, trade-dependent economies in sustaining global cooperation through initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, launched in September 2025 by the UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
Looking ahead, maintaining open channels of communication will be critical, Kastner said.
“Crucially, the building block of cooperation in today’s more uncertain era is dialogue — parties can only identify areas of common ground by speaking with one another.”
