Category Archives: Energy

Xi of Arabia and the petroyuan drive, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on December 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Bit by bit the dollar is losing its reserve currency status. If the Middle East and China do their oil business in currencies other than the dollar, particularly the yuan, it will hasten the process. From Pepe Escobar at thecradle.co:

Xi Jinping has made an offer difficult for the Arabian Peninsula to ignore: China will be guaranteed buyers of your oil and gas, but we will pay in yuan.

 
https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Chinas-Xi-and-the-GCC-countries.jpg

Photo Credit: The Cradle

 

It would be so tempting to qualify Chinese President Xi Jinping landing in Riyadh a week ago, welcomed with royal pomp and circumstance, as Xi of Arabia proclaiming the dawn of the petroyuan era.

But it’s more complicated than that. As much as the seismic shift implied by the petroyuan move applies, Chinese diplomacy is way too sophisticated to engage in direct confrontation, especially with a wounded, ferocious Empire. So there’s way more going here than meets the (Eurasian) eye.

Xi of Arabia’s announcement was a prodigy of finesse: it was packaged as the internationalization of the yuan. From now on, Xi said, China will use the yuan for oil trade, through the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange, and invited the Persian Gulf monarchies to get on board. Nearly 80 percent of trade in the global oil market continues to be priced in US dollars.

Ostensibly, Xi of Arabia, and his large Chinese delegation of officials and business leaders, met with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to promote increased trade. Beijing promised to “import crude oil in a consistent manner and in large quantities from the GCC.” And the same goes for natural gas.

China has been the largest importer of crude on the planet for five years now – half of it from the Arabian peninsula, and more than a quarter from Saudi Arabia. So it’s no wonder that the prelude for Xi of Arabia’s lavish welcome in Riyadh was a special op-ed expanding the trading scope, and praising increased strategic/commercial partnerships across the GCC, complete with “5G communications, new energy, space and digital economy.”

Leave a comment

Posted in Banking, Business, Currencies, Energy, Eurasian Axis, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics

Tagged , ,

German Interview, with Michael Hudson

Posted on December 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

The U.S. is turning Europe into a dependency. From Michael Hudson at unz.com:

Dear Prof Hudson,

Once again: Herzliche Grüße aus Berlin!

Last time we spoke for German print magazine “Four” in June. Right now I also work for MEGA Radio, a radio news station for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We broadcast from Vienna and are located in Berlin, Bavaria and Austria.

Hereby I would like to invite you to another interview via ZOOM to record it for our radio program. It would be an update on our last interview. Maybe around 20-30 Minutes long.

See also our last talk:

I don’t know if that’s too short notice, but would you have time for such a conversation next week or the week after?

Otherwise, also at the beginning of January.

 

Here are my questions:

(1.) You made some predictions in our last interview for “Four” magazine which became true.

You talked about crisis for German companies in the production of fertilizer. This just hit the headlines weeks after our interview.

You also said: “What you characterize as “blocking Nord Stream 2” is really a Buy-American policy.” This now also became more than clear after the destroyed Nord Stream pipelines.

Could you comment that?

MH: U.S. foreign policy has long concentrated on control of the international oil trade. This trade is a leading contributor to the U.S. balance of payments, and its control gives U.S. diplomats the ability to impose a chokehold on other countries.

Oil is the key supplier of energy, and the rise in labor productivity and GDP for the leading economies tends to reflect the rise in energy use per worker. Oil and gas are not only for burning for energy, but are also a basic chemical input for fertilizers, and hence for agricultural productivity, as well as for much plastic and other chemical production.

So U.S. strategists recognize that cutting countries off from oil and its derivatives will stifle their industry and agriculture. The ability to impose such sanctions enables the U.S. to make countries dependent on compliance with U.S. policy so as not to be “excommunicated” from the oil trade.

U.S. diplomats have been telling Europe for many years not to rely on Russian oil and gas. The aim is twofold: to deprive Russia of its major trade surplus, and to capture the vast European market for U.S. oil producers. U.S. diplomats convinced German leaders not to approve the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and finally used the excuse of the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine to act unilaterally to arrange the destruction of both Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.

Continue reading→

Leave a comment

Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Economics, Economy, Energy, Eurasian Axis, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics, Propaganda, War

Tagged ,

The Appeal of not Riding the Bus, by Eric Peters

Posted on December 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

A lot of people want to be in control of their transportation. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

 
 

What is the appeal of “automated” – also called “self-driving” – cars?

Perhaps “appeal” is not the right word. Is that the word people generally use to describe taking the bus? It is something people do, of course. But is there appeal in it? The word connotes positive emotion, as in something appealing. Like a good meal when one is hungry.

That is appealing.

So also a beautiful woman – or for that matter a beautiful car. It is why there are car shows but no bus shows.

A bus is a means to an end. It is transportation. You take the bus – and then forget the bus. A bus ride is only memorable if something unexpected – something unplanned – happens along the way. The same is true of taking the plane. Commercial air travel has very little appeal, except perhaps to those who enjoy standing in line to wait their turn to be processed by a government worker on the way to being herded into what amounts to a bus that flies.

 

Hence airbus. As opposed to (once upon a better time) Constellation or 707.

Walking does have some appeal – as does cycling. It is why people go for walks – just because. If there were no appeal, why would people do that? How many people take the bus, just because?

Cycling is also more than mere transportation. People cycle for the fun of it. And that is the essence of the appeal of it.

Motorcycling even more so.

But what is it, precisely, that is so fun – so appealing – about it?

It is the same thing that makes driving a car more than merely a kind of solo version of riding the bus. That being the freedom to decide your course. This does not mean entering a destination – and then going to sleep, as you would in a “self-driving” or “automated” car.

Continue reading→

Leave a comment

Posted in Civil Liberties, Energy, Government, Politics

Tagged

Fresh Missile Barrage Leaves Cities Across Ukraine Without Power Or Water In Sub-Zero Temps, by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 16, 2022 | 1 comment

By the end of the winter Ukraine may not have any power at all. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

“Another wave of massive Russian attacks on energy infrastructure,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko announced Friday, describing a large Russian barrage of dozens of missiles across major cities. “There will be emergency power outages,” he added.

Air raid sirens have been blaring throughout the day in this latest wave of strikes, which resulted in electricity and water outages in multiple cities and towns amid sub-zero temperatures. 

Commander of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi tallied that Russia launched 76 missiles at critical infrastructure throughout the country. He then claimed that national air defenses were able to intercept and down a whopping 60 of the missiles.

Result of prior October strikes: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters

More attacks rocked the capital as well. “Due to damage to energy infrastructure, there are interruptions to water supplies in all areas of the capital,” a statement by Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko indicated. City authorities temporarily halted metro lines in order to provide a place for residents to take cover underground while the attacks ensued.

Continue reading→

1 Comment

Posted in Collapse, Energy, Geopolitics, Governments, Military, War

Tagged

When the Lights Go Out . . ., by Eric Peters

Posted on December 16, 2022 | 1 comment

Once in a while there’s a power outage. What do you do if your electric car is your only mode of transportation? From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

 
 

When the power goes out, the lights go out. Break out the flashlights and candles. But it rarely means you cannot go out.

Unless, of course, you have an electric car – and you assumed the power would be on, to charge it up. Then – per the Toothless Man in Deliverance – you ain’t a goin’ nowhere, city boy.

On the other hand, a power outage has zero effect on your car or truck’s ability to take you somewhere – like to work, for instance – if it is not an electric car (or truck). Even if its “range” is low because you only left a couple gallons in the tank, it’s not a problem – especially if you had the foresight to keep a few gallons of gas in a jug for just-in-case.

It is effectively impossible to keep on hand for just-in-case the energy equivalent of five gallons of gas in the form of electricity, to get a discharged electric vehicle going when there’s no power to get it going.

Continue reading→

1 Comment

Posted in Collapse, Economy, Energy, Government, Technology

Tagged ,

Doug Casey on Why Uranium has Enormous Upside Potential

Posted on December 14, 2022 | 1 comment

Casey is probably right; uranium could be a real home run. From Doug Casey at internationalman.com:

Upside Potential

International Man: What makes uranium attractive as a speculation?

Doug Casey: First of all, consider simple physical reality. Uranium is the cleanest, cheapest, and safest form of mass power generation. I understand that most people will be shocked to hear that, so let me explain.

It’s the cleanest. Unlike coal—which generates millions of tons of pollutants that need to be buried or are dumped into the air—a large nuclear power plant only turns out waste that can be measured in cubic yards.

It’s the cheapest. Of course, this is something that’s very hard to determine since the nuclear industry is burdened with so many counterproductive regulations, controls, and requirements. But uranium itself amounts to less than 5% of the overall cost of running a nuclear plant. In a free market—which we don’t have—nuclear would be, by far, the cheapest type of mass power generation.

And it’s the safest. Notwithstanding what happened at Chernobyl—which failed because of backward and shoddy Soviet technology, or Fukushima, which had literally a one in a million chance of occurring—nobody has ever died of because of nuclear power. But many thousands of people die every year from the pollution caused by burning coal. And when a dam producing hydropower collapses, typically thousands of people die. There are risks and costs to absolutely everything.

Continue reading→

1 Comment

Posted in Energy, Financial markets, Investing

Tagged

The Microwave You Drive? By Eric Peters

Posted on December 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

You will inevitably be bombarded by elecromagnetic frequency radiation every time you sit in an electric car. The potential risks and hazards remain unstudied. From Eric Perters at ericpetersautos.com;

 
 
You may not listen to AM radio – which for the generations preceding the Millennials was what many of us listened to on lonesome road trips out in the sparsely populated areas of the country, where FM signals couldn’t reach but AM signals could.

But you might be interested in why AM is going away.

Well, it’s not actually going away. AM continues to broadcast. But a growing number of new cars cannot receive what is broadcast via AM.

Electric cars.

And electric trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning this writer just spent a week test driving (you can read more about that if you like, here). They have satellite radio and FM radio – but not AM radio. Their audio systems have had the capacity to receive AM signals deleted.

How come?

Continue reading→

Leave a comment

Posted in Business, Energy, Government, Medicine, Science, Technology

Tagged ,

Our Parasitic Generation, by Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on December 13, 2022 | Leave a comment

California idiocy is a malady that sooner or later plagues the rest of the nation. From Victor Davis Hanson at amgreatness.com:

Yes, there is a lot of ruin in great nations. But even America is by now running low on it.

“Be assured young friend, that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.”
— Adam SmithAre we sure that there is all that much ruin left in the United States?

We are $31 trillion in collective debt. The new normal is $1.5 trillion budget deficits. The military is politicized and short of recruits. We trade lethal terrorists for woke celebrity athletes as if to confirm our enemies’ cynical stereotypes. 

Our FBI is corrupt and discredited, collaborating with Silicon Valley contractors to suppress free speech and warp elections. We practice segregation and racial discrimination and claim we do not because the right and good people support it and, anyway, the victims deserve it. The country has seen defeat before but never abject, deliberate humiliation as in Kabul, when we fled and abandoned to the terrorist Taliban a $1 billion embassy, a huge, remodeled air base, thousands of friends, and tens of billions of dollars in military hardware—and hard-earned deterrence.

We are witnessing the breakdown of basic norms essential for civilized life, from affordable food and fuel to available key antibiotics and baby formula. Old Cairo seems safer than an after-hours subway ride or stroll at dusk in many major American cities. Medieval London’s roadways were likely cleaner than Market Street in San Francisco. Speech was freer in 1920s America than it is now.

Continue reading→

Leave a comment

Posted in Collapse, Crime, Debt, Economy, Energy, Governments, History, Politics, Propaganda, Tyranny

Tagged ,

The Black Market For Oil Is Booming, by Tsvetana Paraskova

Posted on December 13, 2022 | 1 comment

Black markets are inevitable when governments introduce price caps and sanctions into legitimate markets. From Tsvetana Paraskova at oilprice.com:

  • Sanctions on key oil exporters have given rise to a lucrative black market for crude.
  • The EU embargo on Russian crude oil imports and the price cap on Russian crude are set to further increase illicit shipments of oil.
  • Russia is already thought to be amassing a “dark fleet” of tankers to ship its oil outside the price cap regime.

The sanctions on the oil exports of Venezuela and Iran, and now Russia, have given rise to a lucrative under-the-radar oil trade in which less scrupulous vessel owners, shipping firms, and traders continue to sell sanctioned oil to those willing to take the risk to buy it.

The EU embargo on Russian crude oil imports and the price cap on Russian crude – in force since December 5 – are set to further increase illicit shipments of oil to countries outside the EU and the G7 that haven’t joined the so-called Price Cap Coalition.  

Russia is already thought to be amassing a “dark fleet” of tankers to ship its oil outside the price cap regime and it has the playbooks of Iran and Venezuela to take a leaf out of and continue exporting large volumes of its crude and products. Russia could be using tried-and-tested tactics of labeling the oil as sourced from elsewhere, turning off tanker transponders, and even falsifying the positions of tankers via the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data to hide activity taking place hundreds of miles away from the false positioning data.

By using various spoofing tactics, producers and sellers of sanctioned oil still get to place their products with buyers who are happy to get heavily discounted crude.

But not all buyers, especially those in jurisdictions with strict controls and checks such as the U.S., are tempted to discard concerns and red flags about a cargo’s origin. Other buyers, especially independent Chinese refiners, are unfazed as their priority is to buy low-priced crude and make good profits refining it. China, the world’s top oil importer, continues to buy Iranian and Venezuelan crude, often masked as crude from Malaysia or Oman, various analysis and investigative reports have found over the past few years.

Continue reading→

1 Comment

Posted in Business, Energy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Politics, Trade, War

Tagged ,

With 50% Of Energy Facilities Destroyed, Ukraine Urges West For $1BN In Winter Help, by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 13, 2022 | Leave a comment

You know Ukraine is in trouble. Zelensky is asking Russia for Yuletide relief. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Ukraine now says that it has lost half of its energy system amid recent stepped-up Russian aerial attacks, which have continued to include suicide drones, some of which are believed supplied by Iran. President Volodymyr Zelensky communicated this in a Monday phone call with President Joe Biden, briefing the US leader on “the consequences of the Russian missile terror, as a result of which about 50% of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure was destroyed.”

In the mid-afternoon on Tuesday (local time), air raid alerts have reportedly been issued all across Ukraine, with sirens blaring in the capital after Zelensky warned that the next major wave of Russian airstrikes are imminent.

Via AFP

Starting Friday Kyiv authorities began revising their estimate upward from the 40% they had been estimating in statements as of weeks ago. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal recently described, “Unfortunately, Russia continues missile strikes on Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure, fighting against the civilian population and depriving them of light, water, heat and communications during the winter… Nearly half of our energy system is disabled.”

The past month has witnessed some of the largest missile barrages targeting energy infrastructure to date, which has left whole cities, including Odesa and a number of cities in the south without power amid frigid temperatures.

Also on Monday Zelensky gave a virtual address before G7 leaders, wherein he urged more arms including “modern tanks” and “rocket artillery and more long-range missiles” while acknowledging his military is running low in the face of the more superior-armed Russian forces. He asked G7 nations for “about 2 billion cubic meters” of additional gas to help the population get through winter. 

Continue reading→

Leave a comment

Posted in Collapse, Energy, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics, War

Tagged ,