The energy crisis will divide Europe
German economic power is waning, and with its industrial base getting weaker and its population poorer, the willingness to support other members of the Eurozone will be more limited. This is not a recipe for stability, and it seems more likely than not that European solidarity is already past its high point.
The writing is on the wall for Europe in terms of this coming winter – It’s going to get ugly. With natural gas imports from Russia cut by 80% through Nord Stream 1 along with the majority of oil shipments, the EU is going to be scrambling for whatever fuel sources they can find to supply electricity and heating through the coming winter. Two sources that were originally suggested as alternatives were Iran and Venezuela.
Venezuela Stops Oil Shipments To Europe As Alternatives To Russian Energy Dry Up
Related:
Venezuela: Oil Production Declines as Shipments to Europe Suspended
Caracas’ oil operations were affected by mechanical disruptions caused by alleged attacks against oil facilities. On July 16 a natural gas pipeline explosion and a power outage interrupted PDVSA’s supply to its main crude production and export hub, the José Antonio Anzoátegui industrial complex in eastern Venezuela.
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With the operational disruption depleting Venezuela’s lightest oil grade stocks, Iran recently began to increase its supply of 29.5°API blend, a lighter alternative to Venezuela’s 16°API Merey, in order to boost fuel production and free domestic upgraded blends for exports.
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However, anonymous sources revealed that Caracas might suspend crude cargoes to Europe while the industry recovers from recent setbacks. PDVSA is reportedly negotiating the terms of the oil-for-debt agreements with Eni and Repsol to receive fuel while still settling long-standing debts owed to the two companies.
Neither Venezuela’s Oil Ministry nor PDVSA has issued statements confirming the alleged halted shipments to Europe or the renegotiation of the swap deals.
Bill Gates and the Secret Push to Save Biden’s Climate Bill
Gates started wooing Manchin and other senators who might prove pivotal for clean-energy policy in 2019 over a meal in Washington DC. “My dialogue with Joe has been going on for quite a while,” Gates said. “Almost everyone on the energy committee” — of which Manchin was then the senior-most Democrat — “came over and spent a few hours with me over dinner.”
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Also at Manchin’s insistence, automakers also will see new strings attached to electric vehicle tax incentives so they will have to be made in North America and, by 2024, can’t use batteries sourced from China. Labor leaders bemoaned that the final package doesn’t contain much support for workers who lose their jobs in the green transition.
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There’s been such whiplash from 2016 when, as Gates puts it, green spending from the US government “had dropped to near zero.” Six years later, American climate finance has been “reinvigorated,” and Gates now sees innovation “going way faster than I expected. That’s why I’m optimistic that we will solve this thing.”
The working class is going to be thrown under the bus, but at least Bill Gates is happy. 🤷🏼♀️
Aug 15, 2022 – When a catastrophic fire in Matanzas threatened Cuba’s fuel supply, other countries rushed to help. What did the world’s most powerful country offer Cuba? A phone call. The lack of U.S. support has sparked outrage. And its crushing sanctions have limited Cuba’s ability to respond.
Video via Belly of The Beast Cuba
Related:
While Cuba Deals with Blazing Fire, the U.S. Heartlessly Watches and Waits
House Dems Urge Biden to Provide Assistance to Cuba Amid Fire Disaster
At Least 1 Dead and 121 Injured in Fuel Storage Depot Fire in Matanzas, Cuba
The Cuban president stated in a tweet, “We express deep gratitude to the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, which have promptly offered solidarity and material aid in the face of this complex situation. Cuba also appreciates the offer of technical advice from the United States.”
China’s state-run China Petrochemical Group, Sinopec, says it has discovered a massive oilfield in the Tarim Basin, containing 1.7 billion tons of oil reserves.
The discovery is the result of exploration in the Shunbei oil and gas field, said to be one of the deepest commercial fields in the world, in the country’s Xinjiang region.
China Heralds Another Major Oil Discovery
Related:
Chinese Oil Giants Sinopec And PetroChina To Delist From NYSE
The Energy Industry in Xinjiang, China: Potential, Problems, and Solutions
Vast oil deposits discovered in Xinjiang
I’m sure Halliburton would love to get their hands on that oil! Oh wait, that was Iraq!
by Ann Garrison, August 10, 2022
Greetings. Thank you for inviting me and imagining that I might have something to say. I had the great pleasure of visiting Eritrea in April and I love it. I’m going to say more about why later.
US Threatens Ethiopia and Eritrea with “Genocide Designation”
Moscow’s New Found Independence
Hudson noted, however, that “the biggest beneficiary” of Russia having been laden with sanctions is Washington. This is because Europe, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy, is faced with simultaneous energy and food crises, thus leaving it with little ability to pay attention to other matters.
“Basically, Washington doesn’t care if Russia wins the war [in Ukraine], because the US has succeeded in eliminating its competition in Europe, especially Germany.”
Related:
The agency added that the European Union’s commitment to reduce member states’ gas consumption by 15 percent from August 2022 to March 2023 will continue to increase oil demand by about 300,000 barrels per day for the next six quarters.
The Aframax vessels are optimally-sized to dock at European docks, which often cannot fit supertankers, an analyst from E.A. Gibson Shipbrokers told Bloomberg, and the current sky-high rates should remain heightened in the months ahead so long as sanctions against Russia remain.
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“The market consensus was too pessimistic about Russia’s capability to re-route volumes to other buyers,” IEA analysts said. “Russia’s exports adjusted towards other buyers without a serious disruption to its production.”
If the ‘west’ really wants to deprive Russia of money it must immediately lift the sanctions and restart importing oil, gas and coal from Russia at then much lower prices.
Russia will not lack money to finance the rebuilding of Novorossiya’s great industries. Once that is done those areas are evidently able to support themselves and to guarantee a high standard of living. They will also have enough money to militarily defend themselves against anything the poor rest of Ukraine will be able to finance.
At the end of March, after negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey, there was nearly an agreement on a ceasefire and on the end of the war. Joe Biden then tasked Boris Johnson with telling Zelensky to continue the war. The ‘west’ would otherwise stop paying him. Zelensky did as he was told and stopped all negotiations with Russia.
An agreement with Russia at that time would have kept the Ukraine mostly as one state with only minor losses in the Donbas. But the decision to continue the hopeless war also ended all chances for Ukraine to keep its riches.
It will be poor and helpless while its ‘western’ neighbors will feast on it.
Joe Biden didn’t go to Arabia in July to beg for oil. That’s not the nature of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
He didn’t go to Palestine to promote peace. The U.S.-Israeli relationship is based on endless war. And war is what Biden’s trip was about.
Biden and the U.S.-Israel-GCC axis: It’s not the oil, it’s the money
Ms Daly continued: “The list contains a diverse group of people who have next to nothing in common politically, except that all are critical of NATO and Western policy on Ukraine. That’s what democracy is: having the right to express an opinion and have a different view. That Ukraine is attempting to shut that down and narrow the range of ideas expressed in our societies is a mirror image of the behaviour we rightly criticise Russia for.
“The purpose of this list and the consequences of being put on it are not specified but it certainly belies any notion of Ukraine’s government being committed democrats.”
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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