Tag Archives: Gazprom

My Energy is Your Problem – The Birth of a New Europe, by Tom Luongo

Posted on April 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Russia has the energy resources and Europe isn’t going to be able to get them anywhere else. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

“Energy makes energy anyhow
So spend yourself and get rich right now”
— Marillion “Rich”

This day has been a long time coming. From the moment, more than a decade ago, when it was finally admitted that Europe was destined to be an energy importer, we were going to see the climax of the showdown between the West and Russia.

Europe as energy importer always meant that time was on Russia’s side. All it had to do was draw the conflict out long enough, survive long enough, to force Europe into submission. Russia has the energy Europe needs, no one else can supply it, therefore the final decision will be to accept this fate.

No amount of financial wizardry, pathetic virtue signaling about Climate Change, malinvestment into inefficient and unsustainable ‘renewables,’ or military threats would ultimately change the outcome of this story.

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Posted in Business, Currencies, Debt, Economics, Economy, Energy, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Military, Politics, Propaganda, War

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European Energy Crisis — And is That Gas You Think You’re Burning? by Tom Luongo

Posted on October 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Like virtually all emergency shortages, the current European Energy Crisis has been created by European elites per some sort of arcane political calculations. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

The European Gas Crisis keeps hitting new high after new high as gas prices around the world go ballistic. While this isn’t just a European problem, if you read the MSM, that’s all they seem to care about.

You know, it snows in Japan as well folks, and China.

Prices keep skyrocketing in Europe because there is no shortage of idiocy at the top of the European power structure. The confluence of the pressurizing of Nordstream 2 with the release of the “Pandora Papers” and the beginnings of German coalition talks just after the beginning of Q4 should have everyone’s Spidey-Sense shutting down like your adrenals do after a long period of self-inflicted stress.

And honestly, whose adrenals aren’t on the verge of collapse after eighteen months of ‘flatten the curve,’ ‘follow the science,’ and ‘just roll over to the Communism, already, you disgusting plebe!’ that we’ve been going through.

I guess that’s yet another thing we have to try and factor into our analysis of what collapse is the most imminent?

Because when you put this gas crisis in Europe into its proper context it should be clear where the battle lines are being drawn as the extreme pressure cooker of today’s geopolitical landscape forces everyone off the sidelines and into the fray.

On the one hand we have natural gas prices in Europe approaching coffin corner. On the other we have Russia browning out gas deliveries to Europe. China is experiencing major energy shortages and the entirety of the coal delivery network around the world is buckling.

These are facts. There are more I could list but let’s stay focused here.

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Posted in Business, Energy, Financial markets, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics, Propaganda, Trade

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Gazprom: We’re Not Withholding Gas To Europe, by Charles Kennedy

Posted on September 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

Gazprom may or may not be withholding gas from Europe, but high prices and spot shortages before winter should seal the deal for Nordstream 2 early next year. From Charles Kennedy from oilprice.com:

Russian gas giant Gazprom dismisses speculation and accusations that it is not supplying enough natural gas via pipeline to Europe, a senior official at Gazprom Export says.

So far in 2021, Gazprom’s gas deliveries to Europe have reached historic highs, Sergey Komlev, Head of the Contract Structuring and Pricing Directorate at Gazprom Export, wrote in an article for Gazprom’s corporate magazine, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.

Germany, Turkey, and Italy—some of Gazprom’s largest customers—all boosted imports of Russian gas in the first half of 2021, the manager said.

Gazprom’s exports to European countries rose by 23.2 percent between January and July, Komlev added.

“These figures prove the absurdity of accusing Gazprom of supply shortage,” the executive noted.

Europe is grappling with soaring natural gas and electricity prices ahead of the winter heating season due to tight gas supplies, very low gas inventories, and low wind power generation amid still weather.

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Nordstream 2’s Hard Lesson in Reality for Everyone, by Tom Luongo

Posted on July 24, 2021 | Leave a comment

Germany calls the shots in Europe and its awesome industrial plant needs reasonably priced energy, which is why the Germans weren’t going to let the US stop the Nordstream 2 natural gas line. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

For more than six years everyone who is anyone in a politically sensitive position in Europe and the U.S. has wrung their hands over the Nordstream 2 pipeline. From the moment it was announced the howls of pain could be heard all around the world.

Those screams were the screams of people who had grown fat and rich on the status quo realizing their gravy train was over.

Now the project is all but complete and the saga coming to an end we have a weak deal between all the major parties to keep some of that gravy train running. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Joe Biden finally buried the hatchet over Nordstream 2.

But the reality was that Nordstream 2 was always going to get completed. I’ve never wavered in my assessment of this.

The reasons were myriad.

The Germans need the gas.

The Germans wanted another political cudgel to use over the recalcitrant Poland and the Baltics.

The Germans need the gas.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a board member of the Nordstream 2 consortium who put the deal together.

Oh, and the Germans need the gas.

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Nordstream Sanctions a Sad Coda to U.S. Foreign Policy, by Tom Luongo

Posted on December 21, 2019 | Leave a comment

The US’s European satrapies are rebelling. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

The U.S. crossed the Rubicon this week. And I’m not talking about the ridiculous impeachment of President Trump for doing his job.

I’m talking about passing the NDAA with provisions to sanction ‘from hell’ anyone associated with completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline. The U.S. is now openly dismissive as a matter of law any ally or partner who engages in economic activity it disapproves of.

We do this all the time with countries we consider rivals or who have committed ‘human rights abuses’ or contravened international laws or societal norms.

But this is about a simple commercial transaction. Yes, it has geopolitical implications, but those are secondary. No one will be harmed by Nordstream 2, The real harm is to the U.S.’s ability to bring political pressure on European countries to adopt its anti-Russian policies.

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