🔹Russia 🇷🇺 is selling LNG from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount & the operating company, is still making a profit. In August, China's 🇨🇳 imports of Russian LNG rose to the highest level since at least 2019, buying volumes that were previously going to Japan and South Korea.

🔹Russia's largest privately held gas producer, Novatek, may become the 2nd largest shareholder in the Sakhalin 2 project as bidding is ongoing for 🇳🇱 Shell’s 🇬🇧 former 27.5% stake. Novatek fulfills the pre-requisites to be a potential bidder.

Sakhalin-2 developments recently reported on this channel:

💠 Moscow approved Japan’s 🇯🇵 Mitsubishi participation in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project. Tokyo Gas & JERA signs long term LNG contracts.

💠 President Putin 🇷🇺 ordered the re-organization of the Far Eastern Sakhalin-2 LNG project, transferring ownership to a new domestic company.

💠 Japan lacks viable alternatives to Russian LNG, 🚢 which it buys relatively cheaply under long-term deals, to secure its baseload 💡power.

🔹USA - 🇺🇸 Freight railroads 🚂 & their unions are facing increasing pressure from business groups & the White House to settle their contract dispute before Friday’s possible strike action. A strike would shut down 30% of the country’s freight and halt many passenger and commuter trains.

🔹The coalition negotiating on behalf of the nation’s biggest freight 🚂 railroads — including Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF & Kansas City Southern — has announced eight of the 13 tentative agreements needed to avert a strike by some 115,000 rail workers.

🔹The two biggest unions representing 🚋 conductors & engineers have been holding out because they want the railroads to go beyond offered bonus💰payments & address strict attendance policies & working conditions.

🔹Lumber 🪵 prices are already reacting to the possible strike, due to shipment concerns. Futures contracts rose 9.6% today 📈 in Chicago to reach the exchange limit of $559.80 per 1,000 board feet.

🔹Most EU 🇪🇺 states are experiencing shortages & pellet prices have multiplied by around 2.5 times in countries like Germany and Belgium. In July 2022, a ban on importing Russian 🇷🇺 pellets came into force.

🔹N.B. The German 🇩🇪 gov't has a 45% of costs subsidy to citizens that replace an oil heating system with a heating system that uses biomass – including wooden pellets is increasing demand for firewood 🪵.

🔹Centuries old forests 🌳such as in the Gurghiu mountains (Photo) in Romania, are being exploited for firewood as demand soars.

🔹The Dutch 🇳🇱 National Hotline for Internet Scams is warning consumers about new fake online stores, claiming to sell firewood and wood burning stoves.

Recent firewood report on this channel:

💠 Firewood / wood pellet prices & demand drastically increase in Sweden 🇸🇪, Estonia 🇪🇪, Belgium 🇧🇪 & UK 🇬🇧. Polish 🇵🇱 politicians advise stocking firewood. Hungary 🇭🇺places firewood export ban. Germany 🇩🇪 google searches for firewood skyrockets.

🔹USA - 🇺🇸 Amtrak 🚋 has cancelled all long-distance trains nationwide starting tomorrow Sept. 15, as it prepares for a possible freight-rail strike that would impact its service. While the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington is unaffected, many other major routes will not run.

🔹Amtrak has started to preemptively suspend service because its track will be affected if freight rail 🚂 workers go on strike. “Amtrak operates almost all of our 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads,”.

Reported 2 days ago on this channel:

💠 Freight railroads 🚂 & their unions are facing increasing pressure from business groups & the White House to settle their contract dispute before Friday’s possible strike action. A strike would shut down 30% of the country’s freight and halt many passenger and commuter trains.

Germany's 🇩🇪 largest importer of Russian 🇷🇺 gas, Uniper, need gov't aid to survive:

🔹Uniper says the gov't might increase its stake above 50% in the co. as it seeks further aid, paving the way for a what could result in a full nationalisation of the firm. For nationalisation, Uniper’s Finnish 🇫🇮 parent co. Fortum Oyj would have a say in that decision.

🔹Uniper, burned through its cash 💶 reserves sourcing gas on the expensive spot market, triggering 19 billion euros a rescue package with Berlin agreed in July.

🔹VNG AG, a subsidiary of German utility EnBW AG & another major gas importer, submitted an application for government aid last week. The German 🇩🇪government's primary concern is avoiding a 'Lehman-style' collapse of its energy industry.

Recently covered on this channel:
💠 German gov't attempted to pass new gas tax 💰to help Uniper.

💠 Uniper increasing debt 📈& gov't bailout.

💠 Uniper using winter ⛄️ gas storage.

Photo: Uniper's CEO says this is a good crisis with opportunities.

Iran 🇮🇷 makes in roads to the multi-polar world at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿.

🔹Iran 🇮🇷 has signed a memorandum paving the way to transition from its current observer status to full membership in the SCO. Iran's FM declares - "we have entered a new stage of diverse economic, commercial, transit, energy, etc. cooperation".

🔹Iran & Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 have signed a total of 17 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) as the two countries seek to expand their bilateral ties.

🔹President Putin 🇷🇺 says volume of trade 🚢 between Moscow & Tehran had grown 81% in annual terms last year. President Putin announces that a Russian delegation of 80 large companies are set to visit Iran next week

🔹Iran’s ministry of trade 🏗 says trade with Russia was in surplus for a first time in July-August amid a surge 📈 in sales of manufacturing products to Russian customers.

🔹Iran has announced its readiness to mediate between Armenia 🇦🇲 & Azerbaijan 🇦🇿.

🔹EU 🇪🇺 Parliament voted for a declaration that recognizes that 🇭🇺 Hungary can no longer be considered a democracy. 433 votes for. 123 MEPs votes against & 28 abstained. It declares Hungary a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy".

🔹The EU executive recommend suspending billions of euros 💶 earmarked for Hungary over corruption woes. A suspension of up to 70% of 22.5 billion euros worth of cohesion funds earmarked for Hungary from the EU's 2021-27 budget.

🔹Hungary 🇭🇺 threatened to derail a standard renewal of EU 🇪🇺 visa bans on Russians 🇷🇺. They made a U-turn within 24 hours, after several high-level phone calls & diplomatic pressure from Brussels.

🔹Hungary has resisted the EU's proposal of phasing out Russian crude oil 🛢 within six months & refined oil by the end of the year.

🔹Hungary 🇭🇺 has issued a decree which will require doctors to present women requesting an abortion with fetal vital signs. This angered western pro-abortionists.

Video: Hungary gas deal with Russia 14 days ago.

🔹Retaliation? While President Erdogan represents Türkiye 🇹🇷 (a NATO member) as a 'Dialogue Partner' at the ongoing SCO summit, the EU & US pressures Türkiye's Central Bank.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 & EU 🇪🇺 are taking action to crack down on Russian sanctions evasion by Türkiye amid concerns that the country’s banking sector has banks that have integrated into Mir, Russia’s domestic payments system.

🔹The 🇺🇸 US Treasury announced it is ready to impose sanctions on any institution outside Russia 🇷🇺 using the country’s payment system.

Recent posts on the Mir Payment System:

💠 Five Turkish 🇹🇷 banks have adopted Russia’s Mir payments system.

💠 Iran, 🇮🇷 South Korea 🇰🇷 & Cuba 🇨🇺 adopts Mir Payment system. Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 & Syria 🇸🇾 adoption under consideration.

Video - President Erdogan meets President Putin at the SCO Summit.

🔹The German 🇩🇪 gov't confiscates Russia's 🇷🇺 state-owned Rosneft's German assets in order to keep the PCK Schwedt refinery operating. This plant 🏭 supplies the bulk of aviation fuel for the airport in Berlin and gasoline for cars in the region.

🔹"This is a far-reaching energy policy decision to protect our country," says Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Germany seems desperate to shore up energy supplies & meet its European Union commitment to eliminate Russian oil 🛢 imports by the end of the year.

🔹Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, reported a 13% increase in its first-half net income 📈 compared to the same period last year. Rosneft’s net profit increased to $7.2 billion (432 billion Russian rubles) in the first half of 2022.

Previously reported here on this development:

💠 Germany 🇩🇪devising plan to seize Rosneft's PCK refinery in Schwedt.

💠 Germany considers 'nationalisation' of 🇷🇺 Rosneft's assets. (Photo).

The multipolar shift made at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation 🇷🇺🇨🇳🇮🇷🇮🇳🇵🇰🇰🇬🇰🇿🇹🇯🇺🇿🇷🇺(SCO) Summit.

🔹Member countries agreed to take steps to increase the use of national currencies in trade 🏗. "Interested SCO member states" agreed a "roadmap for the gradual increase in the share of national currencies 💰in mutual settlements".

🔹State Bank of India, 🇮🇳 the country’s largest lender, is opening special rupee accounts to handle Russia-related trade settlements.

🔹Russian 🇷🇺 natural gas to Türkiye 🇹🇷 will be paid 25% in Russian rubles & Turkish Lira. Erdogan reportedly asked Putin for a 25% discount on gas.

Moves prior to the SCO summit:

💠 Russian 🇷🇺bank, VTB launches money transfers to China in yuan, bypassing SWIFT. Sberbank has started lending out money in yuan.

💠 Gazprom move payments for gas exports to China 🇨🇳 away from USD/Euros and shift to rubles & yuan (split evenly).

💠 Iran 🇮🇷 and Russia unifying banking systems for trade in ruble/rial currency pair.

🔹The entire island of Puerto Rico 🇺🇸 lost power 💡just before Hurricane Fiona made landfall yesterday Sept18th. Puerto Rico’s power grid is still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017. No deaths have been reported, but authorities in the U.S. territory said it was too early to estimate the damage from a storm that was still forecast to unleash torrential rain across Puerto Rico today.

🔹Up to 30 inches was forecast ⛈ for Puerto Rico’s eastern and southern regions. Nearly 1.5 million people tracked by PowerOutage (photo) have experienced power disruptions. Hurricane Fiona bore down on the Dominican Republic today.

🔹LUMA Energy, the private company that handles the transmission and distribution of electricity 🔌 in Puerto Rico, stated that full power restoration could take days "due to the magnitude and scope of the blackout,".

🔹The world's top arabica coffee ☕️ producer, Brazil, 🇧🇷 is headed for record low inventory, highlights tighter global supplies plus robust demand should continue boosting prices. President of the National Coffee Council, said inventories in the South American country could decline to just 7 million bags (each weighing 60 kilograms) by the end of 1Q '23. Brazil usually has 9-12 million bags in inventory.

🔹In Colombia 🇨🇴, the world's second top arabica coffee producer, crops are drowned in too much rain. Yields are expected to decline in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, while Vietnam, the largest robusta supplier, will also see stockpiles tumble because of poor harvest.

Recent coffee reports from this channel:

💠Sanctions on 🇷🇺 Russian/🇧🇾 Belarussian fertilizers affecting Brazil coffee farmers and other coffee farmers in Latin America/Africa.

💠 Kenya's 🇰🇪 2022/23 coffee production is forecast to decrease by 10%.

💠April's post on frost issue affecting future coffee yields in Brazil 🇧🇷.

Wake Up Europeans!

🔹 The European Commission 🇪🇺 (EC) is using the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI) (released today Sept 19th) proposal as a trojan horse for future centralisation of Europe's economy. This SMEI will grant direct control over the private sector (means of production) in an emergency.

💠 The SMEI provides a blacklist of prohibited ❌ restrictions through reinforced & rapid scrutiny of unilateral restrictions.

💠 The EC 🇪🇺 can instruct Member States to distribute their strategic reserves in a targeted manner.

💠 The EC can set new rules to facilitate public procurement of relevant goods 🚛 & services.

💠 The EC may issue targeted information requests (legally binding) 📜 to economic operators.

💠 Firms 🏭 must either comply or explain the grave reasons justifying refusal to accept EC priority rated orders.

India's de-dollarization news post last week's Shanghai Corporation Organisation Summit where PM Modi met President Putin.

🔹 India & Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 discuss the feasibility of institutionalising Rupee-Riyal trade, & introduction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) & Rupay cards in the kingdom.

🔹India's Yes Bank and Russia’s 🇷🇺 Petersburg Social Commercial Bank (PSCB) have taken the lead in facilitating bilateral trade between both the countries. PSCB has opened a rupee account with nearly three dozen Russian companies settling payments 💰for trades with India.

🔹A delegation from Cuba, 🇨🇺 recently met Indian gov't officials & banks to discuss bilateral trade settlement using the RBI’s payment mechanism in rupee.

🔹State Bank of India, 🇮🇳 the country’s largest lender, is opening special rupee accounts to handle Russia-related trade settlements.

🔹State Bank of India has asked exporters to avoid settling deals with 🇧🇩 Bangladesh in Takas and other currencies.

🔹Lithium carbonate, a key metal in EV batteries, hit a new record high in China last week. Per ton, prices jumped to $71,315 USD, 3X the price last year. Tesla hiked vehicle prices several times in 2022 because of rising battery costs.

🔹Swiss mining & commodities giant Glencore to be evaluating the addition of lithium to the suite of metals it trades. Chile & Australia remain the world’s top mined lithium suppliers, but China has >50% of all capacity for refining it into specialist battery chemicals.

Recent reports on lithium from this channel:

💠 Tucker Carlson report on the vast resources needed to be mined for an EV 🚙 vehicle which is clearly unsustainable.

💠 Lithium mining pollution ☢️ and the growing scarcity

💠 Lithium carbonate, price rise 📈 in the last few months.

💠 Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 lithium reserves & China investment.

💠 Tesla 🚗 and automakers affected by high lithium prices.

💠 EV's face increase costs due to rising commodity prices 📈 of essential materials for EV production.

🔹UN 🇺🇳 Secretary-General says he spoke with EU 🇪🇺 leaders about lifting sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports. The EU measures affect Russian cargo payments & shipping 🚢 insurance.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 is ready to transfer 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizers accumulated in EU ports due to Western sanctions to developing countries free of charge. Russia's Uralchem, has decided to supply its fertilizers to Africa free of charge.

🔹Russia has significantly increased exports of fertilizers to India, 🇮🇳 after both countries finalized a barter agreement in May.

Recent fertilizer 🌱 news covered on this channel:

💠 Natural gas constraints, force ammonia fertilizer manufacturers to shut down in Germany🇩🇪, Lithuania 🇱🇹 & Poland 🇵🇱.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer producers in Norway🇳🇴 , Austria 🇦🇹 & UK 🇬🇧 cut production due to high natural gas prices.

💠 Food processors in France 🇫🇷 & UK 🇬🇧 face shortages of commercial carbon dioxide, a by-product of ammonia production.

🔹Germany's 🇩🇪 Uniper about to be nationalised as "final discussions" over a deal with the German gov't to acquire a 78% stake owned by Finnish 🇫🇮 state-owned energy company Fortum. Uniper imports gas from Russia.

🔹The German gov't would also inject eight billion euros in cash to prop up the struggling company bringing the total bailout package used to stabilise Uniper to at least 29 billion euros.

Roadmap to Uniper's nationalisation reported on this channel:

💠 Uniper, burned through its cash 💶 reserves sourcing gas on the expensive spot market, triggering 19 billion euros a rescue package.

💠 German gov't attempted to pass new gas tax 💰to help Uniper.

💠 Uniper increasing debt 📈 & low levels in Rhine river affect hydro-power plants / commodity transport 🚢.

💠 Uniper seeks gov't bailout as sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 result in higher gas prices.

💠 Uniper reducing storage volumes 📉 to maintain liquidity.

💠 Uniper began tapping into ⛄️winter gas storage to meet customer demand.

🔹Over 10,000 hit the streets of Brussels, Belgium 🇧🇪 in protests. Trade union members wearing red, & regular citizens suffering from high energy prices called today "a national day of action". Protests highlighted skyrocketing electricity, natural gas & food prices & draw attention to the sharp hike in the cost of living. City traffic and public transportation was disrupted.

🔹A Belgian media poll this week showed that 64% of people questioned are concerned that they might not be able to afford their electricity 🔌 and gas bills, which have more than doubled over the last year, while 80% of respondents said they are already trying to make energy and water savings.

🔹The region of Wallonia in Belgium has enacted a lights-out 💡 policy for motorways 🚗 going dark from 10pm until 5am every night. Public buildings in Belgium have a 19ºC cap for heating, and a 27ºC lower limit for air conditioning, while national monuments will have their lights switched off after 7pm.

🔹Yesterday, Sept 20th, Thousands of people rallied in Slovakia's 🇸🇰 capital Bratislava to protest high energy costs and demand an early election. Former Prime Minister Robert Fico was supporting the protestors. He blamed the gov't & President Zuzanafor in being partially responsible for high inflation, claiming it was due to their firm support of Ukraine 🇺🇦.

🔹Most speakers attacked the EU's 🇪🇺 sanctions against Russia 🇷🇺 and praised Hungary 🇭🇺for how it is dealing with the energy crisis. The parliament is debating possible changes to the constitution to allow an early election either called by a decision by lawmakers or by a nationwide referendum.

🔹Slovakia's 🇸🇰 environment ministry has proposal to save energy & is awaiting approvals this week. It entails that Slovak children may not need to go to school on Fridays, while state workers could have to start working from home on Mondays and Fridays.

Video - It was reported that pro-Russia posters were used at the protests.

🔹USA- Two workers died after an explosion/fire 🔥 at the BP-operated Husky Toledo Oil Refinery 🏭 in Oregon, Ohio. The refinery has been "safely shut down" & is offline. The fire started Tuesday (Sept 20th) night. The company did not say how the fire started or the extent of the damage. BP said that it used its own fire department as well as local firefighters to combat the blaze.

🔹BP recently agreed to sell its 50% interest in the refinery to its joint venture partner Cenovus Energy Inc. The refinery can can process up to 160,000 barrels of crude oil 🛢per day "providing the Midwest with gasoline, ⛽️ diesel, jet fuel, propane, asphalt, etc.

🔹Customers in Ohio can expect increased prices for diesel and jet fuel. Drivers may relive recent elevated fuel 📈 prices in the Midwest after last month's BP's Whiting, Indiana Refinery was shut down due to a fire. About 2% of nationwide refining capacity and over 10% of Midwest capacity was temporarily offline.

Video compilation sourced from social media.