Tag: Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Payback For OPEC+ Cuts? Biden May Press U.S. Companies To Limit Saudi Business, Report Says

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Payback For OPEC+ Cuts? Biden May Press U.S. Companies To Limit Saudi Business, Report Says (archived)

The Biden administration wants to leverage U.S. companies with ties to Saudi Arabia but without sacrificing regional security efforts, according to the report.

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The Biden administration will immediately begin scaling back its diplomatic and military activities in Saudi Arabia, at least until OPEC+’s next meeting on December 4, NBC reports, citing an unnamed senior administration official who said the meeting will “be a key test” of how OPEC+ will respond to European Union sanctions that ban Russian oil imports, effective December 5.

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The OPEC+ conglomerate–a Saudi-led alliance of oil-producing countries, including Russia–plans to curb oil production by 2 million barrels a day beginning in November. The move, characterized by the Saudi government as an effort to stabilize energy markets, is expected to increase global oil prices and raise gas prices. The Biden administration has vowed “consequences” for Saudi Arabia over the announcement, and Democratic lawmakers have urged the president to halt arms sales to the kingdom, but the White House has yet to announce how, exactly, it will retaliate and is not expected to do so until Congress returns from recess after the November midterms.

Saudis say US sought 1 month delay of OPEC+ production cuts

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the U.S. had urged it to postpone a decision by OPEC and its allies — including Russia — to cut oil production by a month. Such a delay could have helped reduce the risk of a spike in gas prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections next month.

Saudis say US sought 1 month delay of OPEC+ production cuts

Related:

Saudi Arabia Defied U.S. Warnings Ahead of OPEC+ Production Cut

The one-month delay requested by Washington would have meant a production cut made in the days before the election, too late to have much effect on consumers’ wallets ahead of the vote.

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To entice the Saudis to delay their decision, U.S. officials told the kingdom they would buy oil on the market to replenish Washington’s strategic stockpiles if the price of Brent, the main international benchmark, fell to $75 a barrel, according to U.S. officials and people inside the Saudi government.

Quid pro quo, huh?! 🧐💭

EU Pushes For More Sanctions Which Will Come Back To Bite It

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

On February 22, two days before Russian troops entered the Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU put reams of sanctions onto Russia. They also confiscated some $300 billion of Russia’s reserves that were invested in the ‘west’. The sanctions had been negotiated between the EU and the U.S. and prepared for over several months.

EU Pushes For More Sanctions Which Will Come Back To Bite It

Everyone pays the cost as the rich keep spending

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Everyone pays the cost as the rich keep spending

Meanwhile, the Biden White House is doing what it can to buffer inflationary pain for working people. It has been releasing strategic petroleum reserves in a partly successful effort to lower prices at the pump, extending pandemic-era caps on some student loan payments and pushing for antitrust action in areas where corporate concentration (which has grown hand in hand with financialisation) may be responsible for some inflationary pressure.

But more changes are needed. The success of corporate lobbyists in overturning efforts to roll back carried interest loopholes are shameful. Student debt forgiveness — no matter how generous it is — will not change the fact that the cost of four years of private university in the US (an elastic cost that can be bid up indefinitely by the global rich) is nearly double the median family income. Housing markets continue to cry out for major reform.

I suspect it will take a younger generation to push through these sorts of systemic changes. They simply don’t have as much asset wealth to protect.

U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Falls To 35-Year Low as American crude heads overseas at a record pace

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Falls To 35-Year Low

According to the Institute of Energy Research, the SPR is expected to shrink to a 40-year low by the end of October, with inventories then at 358 million barrels, compared to 621 million barrels a year ago.

Related:

US oil exports to China and India jump as American crude heads overseas at a record pace

The only thing that climbed as high as gas prices earlier this year was the disapproval of US President Joe Biden 😂

Biden was wrongly blamed for rising gas prices. But he doesn’t deserve much credit for the drop