LNG, oil supplies uninterrupted: CPC Corp, Taiwan

• Reuters and CNA

State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected.

The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States.

CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding purchases from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia.

Last year, crude oil from the Middle East accounted for 34.9 percent of Taiwan’s total imports, down from 45 percent in 2022, while imports from the US rose to 61.8 percent from 44 percent during the same period, CPC said.

The company added that about 30 percent of its LNG purchases in 2024 and last year came from Qatar, another 30 percent from Australia and about 10 percent from the US.

CPC said it aims to gradually reduce LNG imports from Gulf countries and increase those from the US, with US imports expected to account for about 25 percent of the total by 2029.

The state-owned company said it would continue to monitor developments in the Middle East and work with the government to help stabilize commodity prices.

Meanwhile, global brent crude jumped 10 percent to about US$80 a barrel over the counter yesterday, oil traders said, while analysts predicted that prices could climb as high as US$100 after US and Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the Middle East into a new war.

“While the military attacks are themselves supportive for oil prices, the key factor here is the closing of the Strait of Hormuz,” said Ajay Parmar, director of energy and refining at ICIS.

Most tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses have suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, trade sources said, after Tehran warned ships against moving through the waterway.

More than 20 percent of global oil is moved through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We expect prices to open [from today] much closer to US$100 a barrel and perhaps exceed that level if we see a prolonged outage of the Strait,” Parmar said.

Middle East leaders have told Washington that a war on Iran could lead to oil prices jumping to more than US$100 a barrel, said RBC analyst Helima Croft.

Barclays analysts also said prices could hit US$100.

The OPEC+ group of oil producers yesterday agreed to raise output by 206,000 barrels per day (bpd) from next month, a modest increase representing less than 0.2 percent of global demand.

While some alternate infrastructure could be used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, the net impact from its closure would be a loss of 8 million to 10 million bpd of crude oil supply even after diverting some flows through Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline and Abu Dhabi pipeline, said Rystad energy economist Jorge Leon.