🔹European traders are rushing to fill tanks in the region with Russian diesel before an EU 🇪🇺ban begins in Feb., as alternative sources remain limited.

🔹The EU will ban Russian oil 🛢 product imports, (includes diesel), by Feb. 5, following a ban on Russian crude taking effect in Dec. Russian diesel loadings destined for the Amsterdam 🇳🇱 (ARA) storage region rose to 215,000 bpd from Nov. 1 to Nov. 12, up by 126% from Oct.

🔹“The EU will have to secure diesel coming from the US, the Middle East & 🇮🇳 India. Diesel prices & cracks (differential to crude oil price) soared to record levels in Oct. & are now 70% and 425% above year-ago levels, respectively.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Ireland 🇮🇪 - Diesel at its second-highest price on record.

💠 The front-month East-West swap, a measure of the premium for diesel in Europe over Asia, widened to $60.50 a ton. It averaged $7.40 a ton in 2021.

💠 Diesel ⛽️ shortages in France 🇫🇷 due to worker strikes at oil refineries.

Video courtesy The Print.

🔹China 🇨🇳 signed a landmark $60 billion agreement for purchases of LNG from Qatar 🇶🇦. Qatar Energy will send Sinopec 4 million tons of LNG a year starting in 2026. The deal will last for 27 years, making it China’s longest LNG supply agreement to date.

🔹The global LNG 🚢 market is all but maxed out in terms of supply and there is little new production coming online before 2026. EU talks with Qatar have stalled amid reluctance from the likes of Germany to commit to long-term contracts.

🔹The gas for Sinopec will come from the North Field East expansion, which will cost Qatar 🇶🇦 and investors including Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. almost $30 billion. Is China planning to rely less on US exported LNG? (photo)

🔹In Sep., Germany's 🇩🇪 Chancellor visited Qatar & failed to come to any long term LNG contractual agreement.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Qatar's Energy Minister said that the EU's 🇪🇺 price caps on Russian 🇷🇺 energy are hypocritical. He said the free market is the best solution.

🔹Bulgaria 🇧🇬 will allow a Black Sea refinery owned by a Russia's Lukoil to keep operating & exporting oil products to the EU until the end of 2024 despite warnings by Brussels that it is against the bloc’s sanctions.

🔹The deal between Bulgaria 🇧🇬 & Lukoil will give an additional 350 million-euro (dollar) boost to Bulgaria's budget.

🔹From Jan. 1, 2023, Lukoil will transfer all production, revenues & taxes to be paid in Bulgaria, & not, as it was before, in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 or Switzerland🇨🇭. The refinery cannot work if exports are curtailed.

🔹Bulgaria’s sole refinery is the main source of gasoline & diesel ⛽️fuel sold on the Bulgarian market.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Video courtesy the WSJ: How the sanction avoidance process works for Russia's 🇷🇺 Lukoil in Italy 🇮🇹.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 & Bulgaria 🇧🇬 were the most vocal in opposing sanctions on Russian uranium.

💠 The EU's highest monthly increase in industrial producer prices for September was recorded in Bulgaria 🇧🇬 (+9.2%).

🔹Part 3 to previous posts covering the attack on the Russian Orthodox Church 🙏.

🔹 The Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the largest Orthodox Christian monastery in Ukraine, was raided on the 22nd Nov. by the Ukrainian 🇺🇦 security agency, SBU.

🔹Russian Orthodox Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev was recently killed by shrapnel, in Kherson.

🔹Recently, vandals smeared paint over the Russian 🇷🇺 Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in Geneva 🇨🇭.

The west politically created the Orthodox Church of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (OCU) to undermine the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) (Russian connected).

💠 Link to 👉 Part 1: The West’s silence about multiple attacks against Russian Orthodox Churches around the world.

💠 Link to 👉 Part 2: Ukrainian militants shell St. Nicholas Monastery, shot 3 monks in the Svyatogorsk Monastery, while holding 700 civilians & 800 monks hostage & seizes Popelnya Orthodox Church.

Video courtesy IntelRepublic: Clip outside church compound at today's raid & recent speech by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

🔹The Republic of Ireland 🇮🇪 - There have been two protests in Dublin’s East Wall in recent days over plans to accommodate refugees in a former ESB office building. Local politicians have said there was a lack of consultation with the community in advance of asylum seekers from Afghanistan 🇦🇫, Nigeria 🇳🇬 & Somalia 🇸🇴 being moved there.

🔹The number of Ukrainian's 🇺🇦 seeking accommodation in Ireland will exceed 70,000 by the end of the year. 🇮🇪 Taoiseach Martin asks residents to warmly welcome Ukrainians & blames 🇷🇺 President Putin for weaponizing migration.

🔹Residents of East Wall have concerns of potential threats to the safety of local women & children, since so far the centre has been filled with 80 single men of Middle Eastern, African & Albanian origin.

🔹A local media smear campaign has begun, labelling the Irish 🇮🇪 protestors as 'fringe' & 'far-right' so as to deflect concerns of citizens living there.

Clip courtesy GB News.

🔹US 🇺🇸 cold storage of orange juice plunged to the lowest level in half a century after extreme weather in Florida & citrus greening damaged production. Orange juice 🍊futures hit record highs of more than $2 per pound 📈.

🔹Brazilian 🇧🇷 exports of orange juice to the US in the first four months of the season surged 58% from a year ago. US stockpiles of cold-stored orange juice plunged by 43% in September from a year earlier -- the lowest level since 1977. A combination of diseases across Florida's citrus groves and Hurricane Ian destroyed crops.

🔹Back in January '22, it was reported on this channel, that Florida, has been hit very hard by a bacterial infection spread through an invasive insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, first detected in 2005. Last week, the USDA awarded a $1million grant to support the development of a plant antibiotic delivery system.

🔹This is the 3rd year of demand exceeding supply, with prices in the US 🇺🇸 & Europe 🇪🇺 set to become 20% to 30% more expensive by 2023.

🔹UK 🇬🇧- Supermarket customers are facing limits on how many eggs they can buy amid a supply crisis that is expected to last beyond Christmas. Marks & Spencer & Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, Aldi & Lidl are rationing sales of boxes of 🥚eggs.

🔹Bird flu 🐓 in the UK has resulted in around 750,000 laying hens being culled since 1 October. Some supermarkets are also importing eggs to fill gaps in supply. If one hen in a flock is infected, the entire flock needs be culled, which leads to substantially fewer hens laying eggs.

Earlier bird flu posts on this channel:

💠 Spain 🇪🇸 - Two poultry farm workers tested positive for bird flu, the 1st known human infections in Spain & the 2nd in Europe since 2003.

💠 Millions of chickens euthanized to prevent spread of bird flu at US & UK farms.

💠 Death of seabirds in Canada 🇨🇦 linked to bird flu.

💠 US egg 🥚prices increase due to culling of hens across US.

💠 Quebec, Canada duck-farming 🦤 operation face financial ruin due to bird flu.

Video courtesy GB News.

🔹Czechia (Czech Republic 🇨🇿) - Despite being able to produce much of its own food, the country is still seeing a dramatic increase in food prices. 📈 Rising energy prices is only part of the problem because a substantial amount of domestically produced food is exported to the EU & abroad.

🔹For 2020, the Czechia 🇨🇿was fully self-sufficient in 3 food groups: beef, milk and milk products, & sugar. In October, domestic food prices rose by 26.7%. In 2021, Czechs paid less than 90% of the European average. In 2022 local food prices were up to 96% of the EU average.

🔹Czechia's EU 🇪🇺 centric PM told farmers self-sufficiency is unrealistic.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Tens of thousands of Czechs protested in Prague, (Oct 28th), to demand a neutral foreign policy & resume purchases of Russian 🇷🇺 natural gas.

💠 Czech Republic 🇨🇿 protests grow, over the ongoing energy 🔌 crisis.

💠 Over 70,000 Czech 🇨🇿 protestors, demand the gov't take a neutral stand on Russia-Ukraine.

🔹Netherlands 🇳🇱: BP said the planned restart of its oil refinery 🏭 in Rotterdam is on hold after unions refuse to return the refinery online over a pay dispute.

🔹The refinery processes 400,000 barrels of oil 🛢annually (3% of northern Europe’s refining capacity) & is a top supplier of diesel to Northern Europe. Wood Mackenzie Ltd: "stockpiles of fuel in region may slide to record lows".

🔹Unions are seeking a 9.5% pay increase + a one-time bonus, while BP has offered a 5% increase + a one-time bonus. Dutch inflation is around 15% 📈.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 European traders are rushing to fill storage tanks with Russian diesel before an EU 🇪🇺ban begins in Feb. 2023.

💠 Ireland 🇮🇪 - Diesel at its second-highest price on record.

💠 The front-month East-West swap, a measure of the premium for diesel in Europe over Asia, widened to $60.50 a ton. It averaged $7.40 a ton in 2021.

💠 Diesel ⛽️ shortages in France 🇫🇷 due to worker strikes at oil refineries.

Video courtesy The Print.

🔹Russia's 🇷🇺 FSB thwarted an attempt of sabotage & terrorist attack on the South Stream gas pipeline by Ukrainian special services. Four magnetic mines, four kilograms of 'plastic', time-explosives & communications equipment were seized.

🔹The bombing 💣 was planned in Russia's Volgograd region. The equipment also contained correspondence with a curator from Ukraine's 🇺🇦 special services, with instructions for assembling & installing an explosive device.

🔹The South Stream project was originally built for 63 bcm of gas to the Black Sea. It was cancelled by US/EU sanctions & bullying of Bulgaria 🇧🇬 resulting in the TurkStream project.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Saboteurs attempt to blow up 🧨 Turkstream Pipeline infrastructure.

💠 President Putin proposed building a major gas hub in Türkiye 🇹🇷.

💠 Last month: Dutch 🇳🇱 authorities, enforcing EU sanctions, withdrew the export license of South Stream Transport which operates the TurkStream. They re-applied for a new license.

🔹EU 🇪🇺 nations have failed to agree on imposing a price ceiling on natural gas. Hungary 🇭🇺 is planning to seek exemptions from EU price caps on Russian 🇷🇺 gas.

🔹The European Commission wants gas prices set at 275 euros- MW/hr, to be implemented via the TTF exchange. When gas is €58 higher than the LNG 🚢 reference price for 10 consecutive trading days within the 2 weeks then the cap is triggered.

🔹Poland 🇵🇱, Spain 🇪🇸 & Greece 🇬🇷 are eager to implement the cap, but says this proposal is not realistic as it is so high that it is unlikely to ever be triggered.

Last reported on this channel.

💠 Some EU 🇪🇺 leaders are insisting that the EU impose a price cap on all natural gas imports.

💠 Norway's 🇳🇴 Equinor CEO: "Any price cap is not really solving the fundamental problems".

💠 EU 🇪🇺 plans to use joint purchasing power as leverage in gas negotiations.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 would not support a price cap on Russian gas.

Video: Qatar's Energy Minister says EU's price caps are hypocritical.

🔹EU🇪🇺 unable to agree a price cap on Russian oil. Poland 🇲🇨 & Estonia 🇪🇪 rejected the proposed $65 per barrel as being too soft on Moscow. Greece 🇬🇷, a big player in the oil shipping industry, doesn’t want to go below $70.

🔹🇺🇸 President Biden claims the G7 nations oil price cap is "in play". Japan 🇯🇵 confirms oil from Russia's Sakhalin 2 excluded from price cap.

🔹 Russian 🇷🇺 Deputy PM Novak warns “the surge in prices would be unpredictable,” & “it would be $300 per barrel if not more.”. Moscow will execute an oil embargo on countries supporting the G7 oil price cap.

🔹Price cap 'ridiculous in reality' due to enforcement issues & oil 🛢market players incentive to cheat.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 India 🇮🇳 have no interest in joining the US/EU oil price cap.

💠 Russia won’t sell oil 🛢 to any nation that participates in the price-cap plan

💠 Saudi Arabia's 🇸🇦 energy minister warns nations who use emergency oil reserves to manipulate prices

Video: India's Petroleum Minister

🔹Ghana 🇬🇭 ordered large gold-mining co.'s to sell 20% of the metal they refine to the nation’s central bank. Ghana is working on a new policy for gold to be used to buy oil products rather than USD.

🔹Central banks bought 399 tonnes of gold in Q3. More than quadrupling on the year. Buyers include China 🇨🇳, Turkey 🇹🇷, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 & India 🇮🇳. The year-to-date flurry of gold buying already well surpasses any 12-month period since 1967.

🔹Burglars in Bavaria 🇩🇪 have stolen 'several million euros' worth of gold from a Celtic Roman Museum.

Recent developments:

💠China's 🇨🇳 net gold imports via Hong Kong 🇭🇰 jumped nearly 40% to an over 4-year high in August. London 🇬🇧 gold dealer BullionVault, runs out of gold bullion.

💠Russia 🇷🇺 have taken steps to “mobilise” the non-reserve gold

💠Moscow's new gold standard & plans for a new trade settlement currency to replace the dollar 💵 require enhanced gold reserves so as to support a new gold standard for cross-border trade

Video: Sean Foo

🔹Mali 🇲🇱bans French-sponsored NGOs from operating in the West African nation. The decision applies also to those receiving “material or technical support from France 🇫🇷.”. Mali accused France of arming Islamist fighters & carrying out acts of espionage against the Malian gov't.

🔹The Malian🇲🇱 gov't announced a new security cooperation agreement with Russia. Since 2021, the number of equipment granted by Russia 🇷🇺 to help the Malian army fight jihadists is ever-rising. Malian transitional authorities claim major successes in the fight against those jihadists, thanks to Moscow.

🔹Germany 🇩🇪 is pulling out its troops from Mali. The Bundeswehr's participation in the UN mission 🇺🇳 MINUSMA will be ended by May 2024. The UK 🇬🇧 recently announced it would be withdrawing its 300 'peacekeepers' from Mali, saying the country’s growing reliance on Russian mercenaries is undermining stability.

🔹India 🇮🇳, Pakistan 🇵🇰 & Bangladesh 🇧🇩 are sending an armed helicopter unit each for the UN MINUSMA.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) is now the worst on record, with 50.54 million birds culled. Supermarket egg prices are hyperinflating because a large swath of the nation's 🥚 egg-laying hens was wiped out.

🔹The 'virus' has mostly impacted turkey & egg operations, sending prices to all-time highs & contributing to soaring food inflation 📈. The outbreak began in Feb. '22 & has so far infected flocks 🐓 across 46 states.

Earlier bird flu posts on this channel:

💠 UK 🇬🇧- Supermarket customers are facing limits on how many eggs they can buy.

💠 Spain 🇪🇸 - Two poultry farm workers tested positive for bird flu, the 1st known human infections in Spain & the 2nd in Europe since 2003.

💠 Millions of chickens euthanized to prevent spread of bird flu at US & UK farms.

💠 Death of seabirds in Canada 🇨🇦 linked to bird flu.

💠 US egg 🥚prices increase due to culling of hens across US.

💠 Quebec, Canada duck-farming 🦤 operation face financial ruin due to bird flu.

🔹Anti-US protest in German 🇩🇪 city of Leipzig runs into large counter-demonstrations. The protesters demanded that the US troops and nuclear weapons still based in Germany be removed. Protesters were met by counter-demonstrators, some of whom clashed actively with the anti-American protesters.

🔹Many of the hundreds who gathered near the US 🇺🇸 consulate in the city waved banners reading “Ami go home.” “Ami” is a common term in Germany for Americans.

🔹German 🇩🇪 media labels the protestors as far-right extremists. The police were in the city were a large contingent. In counter-demonstrations, there were pyrotechnics & riots, the police said.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Media blackout on protests against sanction policy in Berlin.

💠 German farmers 🚜 protest destructive nitrogen gov't policy.

💠 German 🇩🇪 farmers have been protesting draconian climate change policies against them in the name of curbing nitrates in groundwater.

The de-industrialisation of Germany - Part 3.

🔹CEO of the Federation of 🇩🇪 German Industries said 1 in 4 German co.'s is considering moving production to other countries. CEO of chemical industry association, warns "...the gov't is willfully accepting deindustrialization”.

Now in bankruptcy:
📌🇩🇪 Nuremberg kitchen manufacturer Kitchen Source after 40 years in business.

📌 North-Rhine Westphalia 🇩🇪 automotive wheel storage/logistics co. Carewheel GmbH.

📌The DRK (German Red Cross) in Goslar, Lower Saxony. 370,000 euros of donations for Ukraine now in bankruptcy estate.

Previous posts on this channel:

💠 German co.'s operating for over 100 years shut down amidst a surge in bankruptcies.

💠 German utility Uniper, reported a 4.8 billion euros loss & faces nationalisation.

💠 BASF 🇩🇪, the world's largest chemical co. announces “permanent” downsizing in Europe.

💠 Steel manufacturers shut down across Europe.

💠Europe loses 📉 50% of its zinc & aluminum smelting capacity.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer & chemical 🏭 plants shut down across Europe.

🔹Taiwanese 🇹🇼 President Tsai Ing-wen has stepped down as the head of the ruling (US-backed) DPP after a party defeat in local elections. 🇹🇼 Chiang Kai-shek's great-grandson is now mayor of Taipei.

🔹In China 🇨🇳, uprisings were ongoing in Hunan Province, at (Taiwanese owned) Foxconn factory (for Apple products). Workers protested over jobs & salary issues. Apple shares are down nearly 2%.

🔹A fire in a high-rise building in Urumqi, Xinjiang, where 10 people died, allegedly due to China's 'zero-covid policy' has sparked protests further to other places in Wuhan, Shanghai & Beijing.

🔹U.S. 🇺🇸 imposes a ban on electronics created by China's Huawei & others.

🔹Market uncertainty as stocks, oil, & crypto markets are down 📉 today.

🔹Some of the signs at the protests written in Latin Pinyin 🪧 & begs questions about who is on the ground. In Shanghai, young protesters ridiculed police on their low salaries. UK's BBC journalist allegedly promoting protests using Telegram channels.

Video courtesy WION

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 and Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 are facilitating the launch of multilateral negotiations to develop an international convention to combat biological terrorism.

🔹Russia is redirecting its exports and imports to new markets against the backdrop of an international trade crisis, Russian 🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin said at a forum of interregional cooperation with Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 will prioritize cooperation with its close neighbors, including Russia and China 🇨🇳. They would continue to work with the US, EU, Middle Eastern nations.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 and Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 want convention on Caspian Sea legal status to enter into force soon. This is stated in the declaration adopted by the Presidents of the two countries, Vladimir Putin and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Kazakhstan wants to handle greater volumes of cargo moving between Russia and Iran🇮🇷 , an increasingly important trade route.

🔹The Dutch 🇳🇱 government plans to buy and close down up to 3,000 farms near environmentally sensitive areas to comply with EU 🇪🇺nature preservation rules.

🔹The Netherlands is attempting to cut down its nitrogen pollution & will push ahead with compulsory purchases if not enough farms 🚜 take up the offer voluntarily. They are looking at taxing nitrogen emissions to encourage more 'sustainable' practices.

🔹 The Netherlands is the world’s 2nd largest agricultural exporter, after the U.S.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 🇳🇱 Farmers Defence Force, representing 8 agro-organisations, (95% of the industry), locked out of the 1st round of negotiations.

💠 Protests 🔥 previously erupted over the gov't's draconian nitrogen oxides curbing plan.

💠 Gov't policy will result in the destruction of meat/diary farming 🐂 🐄 in The Netherlands.

💠 Dutch 🚜 farmers have been resilient in not backing down.

💠 Netherlands 🇳🇱 plan to implement CO2 emission social credit scheme.

Video courtesy Big Picture.

🔹Moldova 🇲🇩 - Protesters call for the resignation of the president & the gov't yesterday (Nov 28). Police detained 26 people who behaved 'suspiciously'. Protestors called for criminal investigation against gov't officials involved in mass corruption & abuse of office.

Previous posts on this channel:

💠 Nov 13th, 60,000 protestors marched through Chisinau, escorted by retired military & veterans.

💠 Oct. 30th, Stand-offs between Moldovans & police grow violent amid protests over inflated 📈 prices for gas, electricity, water & other utilities.

💠 Oct. 23rd, police 🚓 brutalities continued amid a breakout of protests in Moldova. 🇲🇩

💠 Oct. 16th, 50,000 protestors gathered across Chisinau🇲🇩, the capital of Moldova. Weekend before 60,000 protested.

💠 Thousands protest high energy prices during September in Chisinau. State-backed gas distributor Moldovagaz failed to fulfil wholesale payments to its sole gas supplier, Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom.