🔹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.

🔹U.S. 🇺🇸 shale gas producers are struggling to keep up with demand as exports 🚢 are running at record rates. Underground storage amounted to 2,771 billion cubic feet on Sept. 9, the 2nd-lowest for the time of year since 2010. The Permian Basin (rig count is down the past 2 weeks), contributes 12% of the U.S. total gas output.

🔹Electricity💡generation is on track for a record this year. U.S. generators are burning record volumes of gas because coal-fired 🏭 units have been retired and drought has limited hydroelectric output in the western states. Some economists have warned that natural-gas producers from Canada 🇨🇦 to the U.S. 🇺🇸 & Qatar 🇶🇦 may struggle to fully replace Russia 🇷🇺 as a supplier for Europe in the medium term.

🔹The UK 🇬🇧 formally lifted the moratorium on shale gas extraction in England in a bid to increase domestic energy production. The gov't confirmed its support for a new oil and gas licensing round in the North Sea, expected to lead to more than 100 new licenses.

🔹German 🇩🇪 producer price index (PPI) rose by 7.9% in Aug., up 45.8% from a yr earlier beating July's record PPI increase.

🔹This is an 83-yr record. Low water levels in the Rhine river, made it nearly impossible to ship 🚢 coal to power stations.

🔹Energy prices were up by 139% 📈 from a year earlier. Electricity prices 💡 in particular rose 175%. Hakle, a Duesseldorf-based toilet paper co. said the gas price shock drove it into insolvency. The # of insolvencies like Hakle's has jumped since Aug.

Recent German industry news reported on this channel:

💠 Electricity 🔌 provider Uniper to be nationalised and bailed out.

💠 Russia's 🇷🇺 state owned Rosneft oil refinery in Schwedt confiscated by Germany.

💠 Firewood 🪵 & wood pellets prices skyrocket.

💠 Sanctions affect Gazprom's turbine ⚙️ maintenance resulting in Nord Stream 1 shut down.

💠 Possible future shortages of 🚚 Diesel Exhaust Fluid.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer 🌱 production shut down.

💠 Steel smelters 🏭 & copper producer shut down.

🔹Norway's 🇳🇴 Yara, will shut down its Belgian 🇧🇪 fertilizer unit "in the next few days", due to soaring natural gas prices 📈. The unit in Tertre, capacity is 400,000 tonnes of ammonia, 950,000 tonnes of AN fertilisers 🌱 & 800,000 tonnes of nitric acid.

Recent ammonia based fertilizer developments across Europe as a result of sanctions on Russia & Belarus:

💠 UN 🇺🇳 Secretary-General spoke with EU 🇪🇺 leaders about lifting sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports. Russia 🇷🇺 wants to give 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizers stuck at EU ports to poor countries free of charge.

💠 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.

🔹 Western 🇺🇸🇪🇺🇨🇦🇬🇧 sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 cause further energy hyperinflation across the world. Europe is importing LNG, diesel, & crude from far away regions that keep tankers in transit for extended periods. Shipping experts warn this is sparking the latest surge in global tanker 🚢 freight rates.

🔹 The limited availability of LNG vessels 🚢 this winter may cause cargo disruptions. Last month, average profit for an oil product tanker jumped to the highest level since 1997. Fuel markets worldwide are also tight which, combined with soaring tanker prices, 📈 will only add to inflation fears.

🔹The LNG carrier 🚢 shortage is particularly acute as much of the fleet has already been booked for winter when demand is expected to climb. Traders are putting more crude 🛢and fuels in floating storage, this is contributing to a tight tanker market.

NB This situation does not apply to container shipping rates, which are presently falling.

🔹France's 🇫🇷 national broadcaster to begin broadcasting a "power map" to viewers, showing areas where over-consumption could lead to blackouts 💡.

🔹Strikes ❌ reduce nuclear power generation in France. Three reactors are operating at limited capacity due to the industrial action with the disruption representing about 4.1% of total production.

🔹The French 🇫🇷 gov't already owns 84% of Électricité de France, now planning to fully nationalize the co. which runs a 29 billion Euro loss. France derives roughly 70% of its energy from nuclear 🏭 power.

🔹The price of firewood 🪵 in France has continued to grow, rising by an average of 10% compared to June. Demand has jumped 50% 📈 over the last two months.

Recently reported here:

💠 France's 🇫🇷 high power prices on futures contracts.

💠 Reduced 📉 power generation at French nuclear plants.

💠 Hydro-power generation & 🏭 nuclear plants cooling issues in France.

🔹Experts tell a U.S. 🇺🇸 House Financial Service subcommittee that alternative payment systems to SWIFT pose a serious threat to US national security.

🔹They recommend instituting greater financial intelligence efforts to counteract the threat of Russia's SPFS.

🔹Russia's 🇷🇺 Central Bank National Payment System Department announces that Russia’s SPFS interbank messaging system has expanded 📈 at record pace this year. 50 new entities from abroad joined the SPFS in Q1-Q2 of 2022, totalling 440. Over 100 are from 12 countries.

🔹The SPFS is a SWIFT alternative that ensures the transfer of financial messages between banks both inside and outside of Russia. It was created in late 2014.

Prior SPFS developments covered on this channel:

💠The System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), 🇷🇺 is open to banks from the BRICS nations.

💠 Russia moving it's trade towards China 🇨🇳 using SPFS and CIPS payment systems.

💠Belarus 🇧🇾 planning to bypass sanctions using SPFS since 2021.

🔹France - 🇫🇷 One of the world's biggest produce markets, the Rungis International Market in Paris' southern suburbs suffered a fire 🔥today. The warehouse supplies the French capital & surrounding region with much of its fresh food 🥦🥩.

🔹“Thirty fire engines 🚒 are on site & a hundred firefighters are mobilized,” said a spokesman for the Paris fire brigade. “The fire is almost under control, there are no casualties & there is no risk of the fire spreading,”.

🔹At the end of June, a fire broke out in the industrial zone of the market without causing any injuries or causing any immediate danger. A furnace fire broke out before spreading through a catalyst.

🔹The Rungis National Interest Market (MIN), the largest wholesale market in the world, covers 234 hectares. It is located seven kilometers south of Paris in the Val-de-Marne.

Video compilation from social media.

🔹On the Swedish 🇸🇪 marketplace site Blocket, the word "firewood" 🪵 became the most searched term on the site over the past seven days.

🔹Prices for firewood and wood pellets in Germany 🇩🇪 spiraled 85.7% in August compared to the same month last year.

🔹Firewood prices in France 🇫🇷 has risen by an average of 10% since June. There are delivery delays, with customers expected to wait 3-5 months from the date of order.

Previous firewood developments reported 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.

💠Centuries old forests 🌳such as in the Gurghiu mountains 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.