Month: August 2022

The current water levels on the Rhine River, a major inland infrastructure transit artery across Germany, are exceptionally low and have made certain parts of the river impassible by barge. Falling waters have already disrupted the flow of commodities and are exacerbating Europe’s energy-supply crunch.

The alarming lack of water is contributing to a possible oil supply shock at Germany’s largest oil-processing complex located on the banks of the Rhine, which is operated by Shell Plc. 

“Due to the low Rhine water level, we have reduced the capacity of Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rhineland. The situation regarding supply is challenging but carefully managed,” the company said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters. 

Shell didn’t reveal how much output it cut at the refining facility, which makes fuels, heating oil, and petrochemicals. However, data shows that the refinery can process upwards of 17 million tons of crude oil per year, or approximately 345,000 barrels a day. 

The refinery and chemicals plant is located on the Lower Rhine and outside Cologne. It’s downstream from the highly monitored Kaub chokepoint that is at 35 centimeters (13.8 inches) — water levels below 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) indicate shippers find it uneconomical to operate barges past the point to Upper Rhine. 

Shell’s production cut underscores the severity of dropping water levels on the waterway, amplifying an energy crisis due to Europe’s sanctions on Russia. 

We outlined last month how falling water levels on the Rhine would make things worse for the largest economy in Europe. Supplies of crude products are running low across the country. Austrian oil and gas firm OMV AG warned two weeks ago that Germany saw a run on diesel and heating fuels. 

There is some good news. Rhine water levels are set to increase to 67 centimeters (26.4 inches) by Aug. 22, according to German government data. Also, a fleet of crude tankers carrying diesel is headed to Europe. 

Authored by Chadwick Hagan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In the United States, coal consumption hit an all-time high in 2013, and soon after most every Wall Street bank and liberal activist declared coal as dead.

Still, coal energy was the dominant form of energy in the United States until 2016, and this year global coal consumption is set to reach 2013’s record levels.

In February of this year, Central Appalachian coal production hit a two-year high. Now the price of coal is rising to record levels in the United States and across the world.

Sounds like a tremendous amount of activity for an industry that has been declared dead.

What gives?

First off, let’s be honest, fossil fuels still account for much of America’s energy. According to the EIA’s Monthly Energy Review: “Fossil fuels—petroleum, natural gas, and coal—accounted for 79 percent of the 97 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of primary energy consumption in the United States during 2021. About 21 percent of U.S. primary energy consumption in 2021 came from fuel sources other than fossil fuels, such as renewables and nuclear.”

In other words, fossil fuels made up nearly 80 percent of all energy produced in America in 2021.

Carbon Emissions Curbs Take a Backseat

Earlier this month CNBC reported on the continued coal consumption and price increases happening in domestic and global markets, stating: “coal prices are soaring and global coal consumption is expected to return to record levels reached almost 10 years ago as the global energy supply crunch continues. While investors in coal stocks are having a field day thanks to high coal prices, curbs on carbon emissions are taking a backseat as markets and governments scramble to stock up on traditional energy supply amid bottlenecks caused by the Ukraine war.”

At the moment there are a number of issues at play, ranging from the need to ramp up domestic supply for domestic energy security, to a years-long slowdown in domestic and international production, and now lingering supply issues from the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The ripple effect is being felt worldwide. International coal prices are also skyrocketing.

Mining and metals expert Pete O’Connor from Australian investment bank Shaw & Partners recently commented on the tight coal market and price increases seen across the globe, stating: “And supply [of coal] is tight. Why? Because nobody’s building capacity and markets will remain tight given the weather and Covid. So that market will stay higher for longer, probably well into the 2023 calendar year.”

Additionally, the IAE reported in a recent coal market report: “After coal and power shortages led to high coal prices in October 2021, the Chinese government gave orders to boost domestic production, which reduced the need for imports. In the first six months of 2022, China’s coal production increased by 11%. At the same time, we estimate that its coal demand declined by 3%. As a result, coal imports fell by 18% year-on-year to 115 Mt. For the full year, we expect China’s coal imports to decline by 18%, or 45 Mt. India also started 2022 with reduced imports, but government measures to prevent coal shortages will likely increase import volumes in the second half. Overall, we expect India’s coal imports to increase slightly compared with 2021.”

IAE continued: “Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal, is also the most flexible. In 2021, it increased its exports by 27 Mt to 434 Mt, exporting more than twice as much as Australia (199 Mt). The United States, a swing supplier in the Atlantic market, increased exports by 12 Mt to 36 Mt.”

That’s right. U.S. coal exports increased by three times.

Costliest Coal Contract

Perhaps the most important coal market news came last month in late July when Bloomberg reported on a coal trade that could be one of the most expensive coal trades ever recorded in Japan. The deal was between Glencore and Nippon Steel, and the coal was sold at $375 per ton.

As Bloomberg reported: “Nippon Steel Corp. agreed on an annual supply deal through March with Glencore for power plant coal at $375 per ton, according to people with knowledge of the deal, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The agreement is three times more expensive than similar deals done last year, and is likely one of the costliest coal contracts ever signed by a Japanese company.”

The bottom line remains, thermal coal is back in demand and that’s not changing for a while. Yes coal is dirty but it is reliable. In fact many believe that there is a moral obligation to produce coal, the moral obligation being that we should mine for coal so others can have access to reliable power and energy.

Radical activists who wax poetically about environmental destruction from fossil fuels are also obsessively determined on destroying industries that brought us into our era of hyper technology and industrialization. They are obsessively determined to destroy jobs instead of supporting energy security and carbon capture research and development.

After all, shouldn’t we look to utilize carbon capture in abandoned coal mines? Should we not find a way to filter flue gas from coal-burning power plants instead of flipping off the switch?

What is the point of destroying the coal mining industry, and taking thousands of jobs with it, if you are still supporting industries that cause harm to the environment?

These radicals—in my opinion—opportunistically fail to see the destruction caused by the manufacturing of renewables, which includes toxicity from lithium-ion batteries, wind turbines killing thousands and thousands of birds, and solar panel fields taking huge swaths of land for energy that only provides power during sunny days.

If there is a middle ground to be found here it will be using profits from fossil fuels to pay for the research and development of less harmful forms of energy.

I can tell you from an investment banking standpoint and from an economic analyst standpoint, that developing new energy is not cheap. It will take billions of dollars in investment, and those billions are going to come from the billions and billions of dollars fossil fuel providers make in profits during boom years.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or Zero Hedge

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Syrian government denied on Wednesday that it is holding Austin Tice, an American who went missing in Syria in 2012 while working as a freelance journalist.

Damascus was responding to a statement President Biden issued last week, where he said the US knows “with certainty” that the Syrian government has Tice. Syria has always maintained that it does not have Tice detained.

“The US issued last week misleading and illogical statements by the American president and secretary of state that included baseless accusations against Syria that it had kidnapped or detained American citizens, including former US Marine Austin Tice,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Syrian government also denied reports that it has been holding secret back channel talks with the US about Tice. The Foreign Ministry said that “any official dialogue with the American government will only be public based on the respect of Syria’s sovereignty.”

President Biden hosted Tice’s parents at the White House back in May and told them he directed his team to secure a meeting with top Syrian officials. Tice’s parents have been calling for the Biden administration to hold direct talks with Syria, but there has been no known progress since the May meeting.

“We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home” Biden said last Wednesday.

During previous negotiations in 2020 between Syria and the Trump administration, Damascus demanded that the US withdraw all of its troops from Syria, lift sanctions on the country, and normalize relations to start a discussion on US interests.

Tice went missing shortly after his 31st birthday in 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus. A video released a month later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men.

He has not been heard from since. https://t.co/pjxJtVy0HC

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 17, 2022

But the Biden administration has shown no sign that it will change its Syria policy anytime soon. Officially, the administration is pursuing a policy of regime change by conditioning sanctions relief on a “political settlement” that sees President Bashar al-Assad removed from power.

The writing is on the wall for Europe in terms of this coming winter – It’s going to get ugly.  With natural gas imports from Russia cut by 80% through Nord Stream 1 along with the majority of oil shipments, the EU is going to be scrambling for whatever fuel sources they can find to supply electricity and heating through the coming winter.  Two sources that were originally suggested as alternatives were Iran and Venezuela.

Increased Iranian oil and gas exports to the west are highly dependent on the tentative nuclear deal, but as Goldman Sachs recently suggested, such a deal is unlikely anytime soon as deadlines on proposals have not been met and the Israeli government calls for negotiators to ‘walk away.’ 

Venezuela had restarted shipments to Europe after 2 years of US sanctions under a deal that allows them to trade oil for debt relief.  However, the country’s government has now suspended those shipments, saying it is no longer interested in oil-for-debt deals and instead wants refined fuels from Italian and Spanish producers in exchange for crude.

This might seem like a backwards exchange but Venezuela’s own refineries are struggling to remain in operation because of lack of investment and lack of repairs.  Refined fuels would help them to get back on their feet in terms of energy and industry.  Some of Venezuela’s own heavy oil operations require imported diluents in order to continue.  The EU says it currently has no plans to lift restrictions on the oil-for-debt arrangement, which means Europe has now lost yet another energy source.

Sanctions on Venezuela along with declining investments have strangled their oil industry, with overall production dropping by 38% this July compared to a year ago.  Joe Biden’s initial moves to reopen talks with Maduro triggered inflated hopes that Venezuelan oil would flow once again and offset tight global markets and rising prices.  Europe in particular will soon be desperate for energy alternatives, which will probably result in a scouring of markets this autumn to meet bare minimum requirements for heating.

If this occurs and no regular sources of energy can be found to fill the void left by Russian sanctions, prices will rise precipitously in the EU.  Not only that, but with European countries buying up energy supplies wherever they can find them, available sources will also shrink for every other nation including the US.  Get ready for oil and energy prices to spike once again as winter’s chill returns.  

GM released a series of images showing the Cadillac Celestiq prototype, with a mystical blue and white camouflage wrap, undergoing on-road testing around the company’s facilities in Michigan, according to autoblog GM Authority. 

The Celestiq is Cadillac’s new EV flagship model that costs a whopping $300,000. Even though the sedan has stylish lines and looks like a Lucid Motors Air (from the front), it’s still a Cadillac, and the price seems ridiculous. 

The electric hatchback is set to reach customers sometime in 2024 and should be equipped with an all-wheel-drive electric powertrain capable of a +300-mile driving range and packed with groundbreaking technologies (including a hands-free assisted-driving system). 

Reading through the comments of autoblog Car and Driver‘s take on the new Cadillac — commenters had mixed feelings about the luxury EV sedan. 

One commenter said: “It’s ugly and over price, and will never compete with Bentley, Mercedes, Or BMW.” 

“It looks great, but 2x the price of a Model S or Lucid?” someone said. 

Another person said: “Ugly, bad name, overpriced, have to remember to plug it in. No thanks.” 

But not all comments were negative: “The most beautiful EV ever built! Hope to see it in production,” someone else said.