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European countries have done most things they feasibly could to fill gas storage units.
Overall in the EU, gas storage was 92.37% full as of October 17.
Weather will be the determining factor in how fast gas in storage would be depleted, so Europe hopes for the best and prays for a milder winter.

Europe’s gas prices fell at the start of this week to the lowest level in three months as storage is fuller than initially expected, LNG cargoes are coming in, and the weather is mild. But European governments have been preparing for the worst-case scenario in which a colder-than-usual winter could quickly sap gas in storage, send gas prices soaring again, intensify competition for costly LNG with Asia, break consumers’ resolve to conserve energy in freezing temperatures, and force more businesses and industrial processes to halt operations.

Europe has done all it can to ensure the heating and lights will be on this winter, analysts say. Yet this may not be enough—a long cold, windless spell this winter would threaten to unravel all the efforts and lead to mandatory energy-saving targets, rationing, or rolling outages.

The Good News

All that can be feasibly done to ensure alternative gas supply after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Russian halt of gas flows to nearly all EU member states has been done. Floating storage regasification units (FSRUs) are being set up in Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland. Eemshaven in the Netherlands and Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel in Germany are expected to begin operations as early as the end of this year. Europe is paying a lot for LNG supply, outbidding Asia, which was the top buyer of spot cargoes before the war.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

NATO Kicks Off Nuclear War Games On Monday

October 17, 2022

NATO Kicks Off Nuclear War Games On Monday

Alliance head Jens Stoltenberg says canceling the games would send the “wrong signal”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has begun its annual military drills in preparation for nuclear war on Monday. American B-52 bombers will be joined by advanced aircraft from other alliance members as they simulate a war of annihilation with Russia.

The war games, dubbed “Steadfast Noon,” are scheduled to run through the end of October. Belgium is hosting the exercises which will take place over the North Sea and the United Kingdom. Some American aircraft will take off from bases in North Dakota.

According to a NATO press release, “Exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’ involves 14 countries and up to 60 aircraft of various types, including fourth and fifth-generation fighter jets, as well as surveillance and tanker aircraft. As in previous years, US B-52 long-range bombers will take part.” It added, “as long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance.”

This year’s nuclear drills come as tensions between NATO and Moscow are at a multi-decade high. Moscow has accused the alliance of waging war against Russia in Ukraine. Washington has led its allies in providing Kiev with tens of billions in weapons, as well as intelligence and training, to kill Russian soldiers.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated it would send the “wrong signal” to cancel the war games. “It would send a very wrong signal if we suddenly now canceled a routine, long-time planned exercise because of the war in Ukraine. That would be absolutely the wrong signal to send,” he said last Tuesday.

Stoltenberg argued that going through with nuclear war games is the best way to prevent nuclear war. “NATO’s firm, predictable behavior, our military strength, is the best way to prevent escalation.”…

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Europe’s Fuel Supply Fears Worsen As Major Refinery Malfunctions

October 14, 2022

Europe’s Fuel Supply Fears Worsen As Major Refinery Malfunctions

The biggest refinery in Europe, Shell’s Pernis in the Netherlands, suffered a malfunction late on Wednesday, which could exacerbate an already worsening fuel supply situation in northwest Europe due to the strikes in France.

Shell Pernis said late on Wednesday that “Due to a malfunction on one of our installations, we are forced to flare.”

Shell is investigating the cause of the malfunction and is doing everything it can to solve the problem as soon as possible, and to limit the nuisance for the residents in the vicinity of the refinery near Rotterdam, the company said.

Governments have been informed about the malfunction at Europe’s largest refinery, Shell said in a statement carried by Bloomberg, but didn’t go into details about potential losses of fuel supply.

Fuel supply is already tight in Europe amid an ongoing strike at most of France’s refineries, and if the Dutch refinery malfunction leads to further supply losses, the European diesel market will find itself even shorter on supply, less than four months before the EU embargo on imports of Russian fuels by sea.

France’s fuel distribution continues to be disrupted by the ongoing strikes at refineries, with no end in sight to the industrial action that has left more than 60% of French refining capacity offline. Earlier this week, France said that it would requisition essential workers to staff Exxon’s French oil depot, and threatened to do the same for Total’s French refineries if talks failed to progress. But workers at Total’s Donges refinery decided on Tuesday to strike beginning on Wednesday, French union CGT said.

French ministers said today that TotalEnergies should raise the salaries of the workers, who have been on strike for two weeks now.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Germans told to stop whining, wear 2 sweaters and have candles and flashlights ready in case of blackouts this winter

October 12, 2022

Germans told to stop whining, wear 2 sweaters and have candles and flashlights ready in case of blackouts this winter

Wolfgang Schaeuble attends the first of a two-day federal party congress of the German Christian Democrats (CDU) on September 09, 2022. — Wolfgang Schäuble, former president of the German parliament, told Bild-TV that people should wear two sweaters this winter amid the energy crisis.

German politician Wolfgang Schäuble said on Bild-TV people should stop whining in the energy crisis.
He told Germans to wear two sweaters in cold temperatures and have candles ready for blackouts.
Germany and the rest of Europe face high energy bills as Russia chokes gas supply to the continent.

Germans should stop whining and be prepared with sweaters and candles this winter in case of blackouts amid the energy crisis, according to politician Wolfgang Schäuble.

In an interview on Tuesday with Bild-TV, the former finance minister and president of the German government said Germans should “just put on a sweater, or maybe a second sweater” in the event of a freezing-cold winter.

“You don’t have to whine about it, you have to recognize that a lot of things can’t be taken for granted,” he told the news channel.

European leaders have raised concerns about the possibility of power cuts this winter because of the squeeze in energy supplies. “That’s why you should always have a few candles, matches and a flashlight at home,” Schäuble told Bild-TV.

The 80-year-old also warned Germans not to assume the government could solve financial problems such as soaring inflation and energy costs.

“If we suggest to people that everything is unlimited, we are overexploiting. Then people get the impression that the state can do everything – that is not sustainable,” Schäuble told Bild-TV.

Russia continues to hold back natural gas supplies to Europe after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow for invading Ukraine. As a result of the shortages, energy prices have sky-rocketed, leaving some people struggling to afford food and other basic items.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Dutch dilemma: What is Europe willing to do for more natural gas?

October 10, 2022

Dutch dilemma: What is Europe willing to do for more natural gas?

Modern global society is steeped in the idea of trade-offs, the notion that one must suffer losses to obtain desired gains. This prepares the way for disingenuous leaders to explain why sacrifices are necessary to reach supposedly exalted goals. Usually those sacrifices are made by the powerless in society; they are certainly not made by the leaders who call for sacrifices nor by the wealthy and powerful who benefit from them.*

This coming fateful winter season in Europe is likely to include a lively debate about whether the Dutch should make a perilous trade-off on behalf of an energy-starved Europe. So far, the Dutch have been firm about closing one of the world’s largest natural gas fields, Groningen, no later than 2024—even in the face of severe European gas shortages resulting from the loss of gas from Russian pipelines.

The reason for that firmness has to do with the damage earthquakes are inflicting on the buildings located above and around the field, earthquakes related directly to withdrawal of Groningen’s gas. In the northeastern part of the country, some 1200 earthquakes have severely damaged 27,000 buildings to the point that they are uninhabitable. About 3,300 structures have been demolished. A 2015 study reported that 152,000 homes need to be reinforced. As a result the government has been reducing gas withdrawals to mitigate the problem with an eye toward closing the field. Closing the field also comports with the government’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.

But, will the Dutch be able to withstand calls for increasing production from Groningen as the European winter arrives?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Europe’s Permanent Energy Crisis Gets Worse

October 5, 2022

Europe’s Permanent Energy Crisis Gets Worse

The pipeline explosions I wrote about last week were neither a beginning nor an end to Europe’s economic woes. The “invisible scissors” cutting all ties between Europe and the rest of Eurasia were already active since months — if not years — and did not stop for a minute ever since. However, now they’ve become busier than ever.

Itincreasingly looks like that the rather cruel metaphor I brought up in April, is now becoming a reality in front of our eyes — in a strictly figurative sense of course. As I wrote back then:

Back in the age of shoguns and samurai, there was a rather bloody way a noble warrior could restore honor for himself or for his family by committing a form of voluntary ritual suicide. What contemporary societies rarely grasp, is that the person in question had to die no matter what. He had to choose between falling into enemy hands (and being tortured — then executed resulting in the loss of his and his family’s honor), or performing this rather painful ritual by himself.

After several decades of magical thinking and self-delusion Europe has now found itself in the same situation. Leaders of this once prosperous peninsula of Eurasia have now decided to severe themselves from Russian fossil fuel supplies: starting with coal in August, then moving on to oil and gas. Lacking its own adequate supplies of energy carriers tough this act will effectively self-terminate the EU economy — an act equivalent to a ritual suicide; a desperate attempt to restore the continent’s lost honor.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is the United Kingdom on the Road to Economic Collapse?

October 4, 2022

Is the United Kingdom on the Road to Economic Collapse?

There’s trouble across the pond and it’s only going to get worse as winter quickly approaches.

While it’s most fashionable to talk about the dire economic situation currently taking place in the US, the situation in Europe is so much worse.

There are talks of massive energy bill hikes and even the lights literally going out across Europe. This is the product of the toxic combination of a misguided sanctions war against Russia and Europe’s decision to transition towards inefficient green energy sources.

As a result, folks across the pond are going to be in for a rough winter.

If you’re an America, you should feel safe knowing that our situation could be much worse…at least for now.

Now for residents of the United Kingdom, that’s a different story.

The UK is now facing inflation levels that haven’t been seen in decades. On top of that, energy and food prices have been soaring lately.

Liz Truss, the UK’s new prime minister, is now tasked with trying to get the country’s economic house in order.

Truss is currently proposing a plan to cut taxes (good), while raising spending (bad). It’s basically a moderate form of Keynesianism, which does not resolve any of the UK’s structural economic problems.

Instead of cutting spending and red tape, while also getting the UK’s monetary house in order, Truss’s new economic proposal worsens the country’s fiscal situation and will only further ignite inflation.

What’s taking place in the UK is not unique to the island. Most economies in the West are over-taxed, over-regulated, and feature central banks who have no regard for monetary restraint.

It’s small wonder why these countries are in such dire straits.

Will the UK be one of the first high-profile victims of the economic doom spiral engulfing the West?

Check out George Gammon’s most recent video on why there’s nothing but bad things coming to the island nation.

P.S. – The West is experiencing an existential economic crisis.

In Nord Stream attack, US sees ‘a tremendous opportunity’

October 4, 2022

In Nord Stream attack, US sees ‘a tremendous opportunity’

Without the now-exploded Nord Stream gas pipelines, Europeans fear “a winter of de-industrialization.” As US planners have long sought, the White House sees a “tremendous strategic opportunity.”

The Baltic Sea bombing of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines “threatens to greatly expand the military theater” in Europe (Wall Street Journal), adding “yet another diffuse threat to a growing array of worries, from power blackouts all the way to nuclear war.” (New York Times).

In halls of power on the other side of the Atlantic, the outlook is much rosier.

The idling of Nord Stream, Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in Washington, is “a tremendous opportunity.” So tremendous, in fact, that Blinken repeated it twice. With both Nord Stream 1 and 2 unable to ship Russian energy directly to Germany for the long-term, Europe has “a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy, and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs,” Blinken said. That “offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come.”

As Europe enters winter in the weeks to come, now lacking its traditional Russian source of cheap natural gas, ordinary civilians might not appreciate the tremendous strategic opportunity that their predicament offers Washington bureaucrats. Western sanctions on Russia have already led to job losses, skyrocketing bills, and fears of energy rationing amid forecasts of exceptionally cold temperatures ahead. Just before the Nord Stream blasts, the head of German’s steel federation warned that without Russian energy, “a winter of de-industrialization threatens us in Germany.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Nord Stream Attack Updates

September 28, 2022

Nord Stream Attack Updates

United States complicity seems increasingly to be an open secret.

oil slick NordStream 2. Photo Forsvaret released

Radosław Sikorski, MEP, former Polish defence minister and husband of well-connected neoconservative intellectual Anne Appelbaum, has publicly thanked the United States for attacking the Nord Stream pipelines. Jim Geraghty, senior political correspondent for the American political journal National Review, has also praised the attacks in a brief piece called Who Will Rid Me of This Meddlesome Pipeline? He is proud that he has been arguing about the importance of taking Nord Stream 2 offline since February and suggests that the present attacks reflect his influence.

The biggest detail to break since I went to sleep yesterday, is this claim made by an anonymous intelligence source to Der Spiegel, that the CIA had warned Germany of Baltic pipeline attacks a few weeks ago:

The United States warned the German government weeks ago of possible attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. According to information from SPIEGEL, a corresponding tip from the US intelligence service CIA was received in Berlin in the summer.

Several persons familiar with the matter confirmed this.

Even before the invasion of Ukraine, Nato partners had repeatedly pointed to suspicious activities of Russian ships over nodes of the underwater networks.

However, an initial analysis of satellite images from the area of the incidents showed only inconspicuous ship traffic at first glance, security circles said.

The Tagesspiegel has a longer piece today trying to come up with a plausible motive for Russia. They imagine that a Russian attack might have had the purpose of allowing Gazprom to escape contractual requirements to deliver gas through Nord Stream 1, thus driving European energy prices higher. Alternatively, they propose it might’ve been a ruse to circumvent sanctions for the repair of the pipeline. To even retype these theses is to reveal their infirmity.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Lights out, ovens off: Europe preps for winter energy crisis

September 28, 2022

Lights out, ovens off: Europe preps for winter energy crisis

ADDING FULL NAME OF BUSINESS An employee pushes bread rolls into one of the gas heated ovens in the producing facility in Cafe Ernst in Neu Isenburg, Germany, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Andreas Schmitt, head of the local bakers' guild, said some small bakeries are contemplating giving up due to the energy crisis. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

An employee pushes bread rolls into one of the gas heated ovens in the producing facility in Cafe Ernst in Neu Isenburg, Germany, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Andreas Schmitt, head of the local bakers’ guild, said some small bakeries are contemplating giving up due to the energy crisis. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — As Europe heads into winter in the throes of an energy crisis, offices are getting chillier. Statues and historic buildings are going dark. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about giving up, while fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle.

In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat pump can take half a year. And businesses don’t know how much more they can cut back.

“We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. The restaurants already run the grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the year.

With costs high and energy supplies tight, Europe is rolling out relief programs and plans to shake up electricity and natural gas markets as it prepares for rising energy use this winter. The question is whether it will be enough to avoid government-imposed rationing and rolling blackouts after Russia cut back natural gas needed to heat homes, run factories and generate electricity to a tenth of what it was before invading Ukraine.

Europe’s dependence on Russian energy has turned the war into an energy and economic crisis, with prices rising to record highs in recent months and fluctuating wildly.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Blasts Detected Near Nord Stream As Images Reveal “Huge Leak”

September 27, 2022

Blasts Detected Near Nord Stream As Images Reveal “Huge Leak”

Update (1025ET):

AFP News reported the US is ‘ready to provide support’ to Europe after the Nord Stream pipeline system leaks.

There was no further information on what type of support, but one can only imagine it would involve increased LNG cargo shipments to the EU.

There’s only one issue…

* * *

Update (0932ET):

Swedish broadcaster SVT reported that the Swedish National Seismic Network detected two underwater explosions near the Nord Stream pipeline system on Monday.

“One of the explosions had a magnitude of 2.3, and was registered at as many as 30 measuring stations in southern Sweden,” SVT said.

Bjorn Lund, a professor in seismology and director of the Swedish National Seismic Network, said these two seismic events were explosions.

Here’s a map of the three leaks on the Nord Stream pipeline system.

Bloomberg’s Javier Blas said the size of the “gas leak is huge.”

So the question remains what (or who) caused the blasts?

Remember what President Biden said weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine:

“If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

IEA Head Warns “Wild West” Energy Scenario Could Unravel Europe

September 26, 2022

IEA Head Warns “Wild West” Energy Scenario Could Unravel Europe

The unity of EU member states could be in jeopardy as a dark winter fast approaches set to trigger a ‘continental scramble’ for energy resources. European countries would be in a “wild west scenario” in their attempt to pursue energy security which would result in souring relations with neighbors and cause worsening fuel and power shortages with risks of social unrest, warned Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, who was quoted by the Financial Times.

Birol spoke Thursday in an interview at the inaugural Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he explained the energy crisis threatens to shatter EU unity as countries could restrict or stop trading energy resources with neighbors to ensure their own energy security.

“The implications will be very bad for energy, very bad for the economy, but extremely bad politically … if Europe fails this test in energy, it can go beyond energy implications,” Birol said

The head of the Paris-based watchdog energy group was very straightforward about the two possible scenarios:

“EU and members will work in solidarity, supporting each other . . . or there is another scenario, if everybody is for himself.”

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was firm in her state of the union address that the unity of EU member states will prevail through this energy crisis.

But there has already been a breakdown in unity among some member states, as FT explains:

Norway’s Nordic neighbours last month blasted Oslo for “selfish” behaviour as it considered pausing electricity exports while it refilled its hydroelectric reservoirs.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Hilarious Reason Europe Won’t Freeze This Winter

September 17, 2022

The Hilarious Reason Europe Won’t Freeze This Winter

https://youtu.be/ALQg5wmhIVE

Europe Cannibalized

September 17, 2022

Europe Cannibalized

Abandoned industrial building. Image credit: Pixabay

Europe is in the process of losing its industry. It didn’t start this year, it was already going on for decades now. However, in 2022 the process has switched from a long slow grind to a considerably higher gear.

Energy is the economy. This is the key point in understanding not only economics, but geopolitics and history as well — especially the recent events in Europe and around the world. Too bad, that this rather self-explanatory observation has been completely left out of modern (i.e.: neoclassical) economics theory, where everything revolves around prices of goods and services, demand and supply, and ultimately: infinite growth on a finite planet.

In the real world, however, every single economic activity requires an irreversible expenditure of energy: from cutting a client’s hair, to melting or forging steel. Take energy away and all economic activity stops, starting with the ones using the highest amount of energy and continuing with the rest as the loss of one business leads to the loss of another.

List of the most energy intensive businesses. Source: US Energy Information Administration

There is a very important point to understand here though. Complex self-adapting systems, like the Economy, very rarely collapse completely. As the knock-on effects take their toll, the falling of dominoes usually stops at a certain point. It’s like an avalanche: it starts slowly beneath the surface. As the fundamentals deep inside the snow-pack slowly give way to gravity, a large piece breaks away: all of a sudden half of the mountain is on it’s way towards the valley! However, there are many natural stopgaps in the process, and the avalanche remains concentrated to a certain area. It destroys everything in its path, but it eventually stops.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Europe Is Facing Energy Disaster And It’s Going To Bleed Over Into The US

September 11, 2022

Europe Is Facing Energy Disaster And It’s Going To Bleed Over Into The US

Though the situation is ever changing, currently the Russian government has announced an official shutdown of ALL natural gas exports to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and plans to maintain the shutdown until the EU ends its economic sanctions over the war in Ukraine. This means that around 40% of Europe’s energy resources are now gone, with supply chain issues surrounding the other 60% and prices skyrocketing for households and businesses.

Back in March in an article titled ‘The Biggest Lies (So Far) Surrounding Russia And Ukraine’ I noted that:

“…There’s something else the media does not talk about much, which is Europe’s reliance on Russian oil and natural gas. If you want to see actual price inflation caused by Russia, let the EU ban Russian oil imports, or watch as Putin cuts off the supply. Europe is dependent on Russian oil and gas for about 40% of overall energy production. They cannot even survive a single year without it. If Russia retaliated and blocked energy exports to Europe, the the EU would have to siphon oil from many other countries, reducing global supply dramatically. This would cause gas prices to explode to double or even triple current levels.”

Back in April of this year in my article ‘The Media Is Ignoring These Two Events Which Could Cause Economic Collapse’ I predicted that:

“…The Russian economy is not about to fold anytime soon, and now the EU, which is reliant on Russian oil and gas exports for 40% of their energy needs, is about to face economic doom unless they submit to paying for energy in rubles (which they won’t) or find a replacement source for gas and oil (which is impossible)…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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