Posted on 05/30/2022 12:18:12 AM PDT by Mount Athos
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday expressed fears that the European Union's unity was "starting to crumble" ahead of a summit to discuss an oil embargo against Russia and plans to cut dependence on Russian energy.
EU leaders will meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss a new sanctions package against Russia, which could also include an oil embargo, and a programme aiming to speed up ending dependence on fossil fuels, including Russian gas.
"After Russia's attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let's hope it continues like this. But it is already starting to crumble and crumble again," Habeck told a news conference.
On Friday, European countries scrambled to reach a deal to embargo seaborne deliveries of Russian oil but allow deliveries by pipeline, a compromise to win over Hungary and unblock new sanctions against Moscow.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Russia Sends Record Volumes Of Oil To India, China
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4067098/posts
Blunt end of this...the effort to find alternate sources has marginally found success. Maybe if they had several years, it’d work out.
On the other end of this, for Russia to find new customers....they’d have deal with tanker insurance, which is a fiasco right now. The two groups need each other.
Meanwhile, sanctions stay and the average Russian is feeling some pain. Noticed....no inflation index info for Russia since the war start? No unemployment numbers since the war started? No import/export numbers since the war started? No GDP numbers since the war started? Any national debt numbers since the war started?
i think i remember hearing about inflation of 10%, I don’t know about the others.
I think it’s easy for Russia to find other oil customers.
But gas is a huge problem, I don’t think they can find a substitute for many of the european customers for their western Russian gas. It will be a huge loss in the future.
They can’t send the gas from the western part of Russia to Asia, pipelines don’t run that far.
There are very large increases in gas going to asia, but this was already expected and planned for many years.
Serbia ignores EU sanctions, secures gas deal with Putin
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4067112/posts
Ten more European gas buyers open ruble accounts for payments
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4063734/posts
Orban Tells EU’s Michel Hungary’s Economy Would Collapse Without Russian Gas
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4045272/posts
To move oil, unless you had the pipelines built already...you need tankers, and tankers require insurance. Once the EU put a crimp into tanker insurance around the globe...the tanker folks are shaking their heads. They can’t go into a port or make a run without insurance companies in the middle of the deal.
Best Russia could do is route some oil to the east coast...let a few smaller tankers (with zero insurance) pick up the oil and move to the customer.
The consumer line to Europe will continue to some degree but as months pass...more alternate sources will be found, and Russia will have a more difficult time, with a lesser GDP. It’s the long-term landscape that matters now.
It’s a lot easier to do shenanigans with transferring oil between ships and countries than you suggest.
Greece emerging as new hub for Russian ship-to-ship fuel oil exports, data shows
LONDON/ATHENS, May 18 (Reuters) - Russian fuel oil arrivals offshore Greece jumped to record levels in April, as sanctions on Moscow drive traders to find new ways to export Russian oil via ship-to-ship (STS) loadings, Refinitiv Eikon data showed and sources said.
The euroweenies had better get ready for their first green Christmas.
Not for the super-tankers. Those represent a cost factor for someone, and insurance matters. So if you wanted to bulk-ship (super-tanker) your oil...you have to deal with western insurance companies. If they say no, there’s nothing much to do except find lesser vehicles to transport the oil.
Snort.
The sanctions were always a joke.
I recall reading somewhere that there is speculation that oil could go back down to about the mid 60s per barrel if the EU sanctions completely falter, and it looks like that may actually take place.
“Meanwhile, sanctions stay and the average Russian is feeling some pain. “Noticed....no inflation index info for Russia since the war start? No unemployment numbers since the war started? No import/export numbers since the war started? No GDP numbers since the war started? Any national debt numbers since the war started?”
Brics partners will buy all oil Russia cares to export. The US consumer has paid more due to sanctions on oil than it has cost the Russians. Why don’t you check out all those economic stats for America? This quagmire is killing us economically and killing the Ukrainians literally to protect the illicit oligarchs in Kiev and DC. The Biden/Neocon sanction driven gas prices are destroying the unsubsidized rural working poor in this country. These are the forgotten people that MAGA offered a lifeline to. I can’t understand how former America Firsters can turn their backs on their neighbors and MAGA over this neocon wet dream of Russian regime change.
The anti-Russian Cold War programming runs deep.
There are no good guys involved in leadership on any of the sides.
By next winter, the EU will buy lots of Russian gas, and they will like it.
All this brave talk about converting to LNG misses one big point: it is much more expensive.
I heard your point made this weekend by someone who knows a lot about this.
He said that Lloyds of London (and other insurers) are the big factor. If they won’t insure your vessel, you aren’t going to be allowed into harbor.
I’m looking for another solution to come along, this refusal to accept Russian oil can’t continue and the world is fooling itself to try.
It’s like a kid saying, ‘I’m holding my breath until you stop!’
Looking at charts, Europe is oil poor. I’m thinking that all this climate change nonsense started with them.
The oil poor World Economic Forum pushed the talk against fossil fuels way back in 1971 when they started. They are vulnerable and dependent on oil rich nations.
When nations didn’t comply and continued drilling the rhetoric got worse......”destroying the planet.” Fear is a motivator.
Scam.
Correct.
Germany will do what is in their best interest. Fall is just around the corner.
“On the other end of this, for Russia to find new customers....they’d have deal with tanker insurance”
Any law against Russia insuring tankers that carry its oil?
I;d like to amend the Reuters blather. It is not dependence on Russian energy, per se. The Greens and similar environmentalist politicians hope to CUT dependence on energy itself, excepting the wind/solar game which cannot supply modern Europe for their energy needs.
Europe's 700+ million need energy, while Russia's 165 million have energy enough already. The European Union's 450 million of those 700 million are currently driving the anti-hydrocarbon fantasy which has been crashing into reality LONG BEFORE the Ukraine/Russia war.
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