🔹Independent Chinese 🇨🇳 refiners have seen their refining margins jump, as they are able to negotiate steeper discounts for their preferred Russian crude grade, even if they buy it above the G7 price cap.

🔹A possible oil shock is on the horizon. Oil exports 🚢 of Russian ESPO-grade oil 🛢 from the Pacific port of Kozmino had collapsed more than 50% following the implementation of the western oil price cap.

🔹OPEC has not consistently produced more than 30 million bpd since 2015-2018. Structural underinvestment in new oil supply may lead to structurally higher prices. Meanwhile, the US 🇺🇸 needs to buy some oil for its strategic petroleum reserve after releasing close to 200 million barrels from it this year.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 got exemptions from the EU's oil price cap on Russian crude.

💠 Russia has discretely assembled a "shadow fleet" 🚢 of more than 100 tanker ships.

💠 Russia's 🇷🇺 Deputy PM warns that oil price cap will lead to market volatility.

🔹Croatian 🇭🇷 lawmakers narrowly rejected a proposal the country should join an EU mission in support of the Ukrainian military. President Zoran Milanovic said Croatia should not be involved in the war and that the proposal would violate the constitution because it failed to clarify the basis for declaring Ukraine an ally, given that it is not a member of the EU🇪🇺 or NATO.

🔹He also hit out against PM Andrej Plenkovic for his proposal to have Ukrainian 🇺🇦 troops trained in Croatia. Milanovic said such a move would “bring war” to the country. “You keep pushing moral blackmail,” he addressed Plenkovic, “but you have no morals yourself. Go to Ukraine and fight.”

🔹Speaking of the Croatian military’s preparedness to fight, Milanovic noted it had a shortage of anti-tank rockets, for example. “We have Americans 🇺🇸, who will defend us the way they defend the Ukrainians. Great!” he said sarcastically.

Video: Croatian President Zoran Milanovic

🔹Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia 🇷🇺 and current deputy chair of the Security Council, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing.

🔹Medvedev said he and his Chinese host discussed intra-party cooperation, among other things. Xi was re-elected as secretary general of the Communist Party of 🇨🇳 China in October. Medvedev leads the ruling United Russia party.

🔹The two officials also discussed bilateral relations between China and Russia as well as international affairs, including the crisis in Ukraine 🇺🇦.

🔹"The shaping of the 🇨🇳 Chinese-Russian 🇷🇺 comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era is a choice made by China and Russia accounting for their unique national features and long-term strategic interests," Xi added.

Video courtesy CGTN

🔹Europe faces impediment to bringing new renewable power 💡online due to insufficient grid capacity. European countries are planning huge additions of renewables over the next few years.

🔹A huge amount of grid capacity will need to be developed, both to integrate new generation capacity into respective countries’ power mixes and to better connect European countries so that electricity 🔌 can flow in the most optimal way.

🔹Europe's 🇪🇺 policymakers and the power sector will need to carefully examine if a country’s development plans for new generation capacity match its development plans for both internal and cross-border transmission capacity.

🔹UK 🇬🇧 signs MoU with EU & North Sea nations to develop wind farms and interconnectors in the North Sea.

EU approves Germany’s 🇩🇪 near US$30 billion renewables scheme lasting till 2026.

🔹The EU's 🇪🇺 natural gas price cap (from Feb 15th 2023) could limit Europe’s capacity to continue to draw most of the global spot LNG supply. If risks to the security of supply occur, they will suspend the price cap rule. More than 70% of all U.S. 🇺🇸 LNG 🚢 exports have headed to Europe in recent months.

🔹There simply may not be enough LNG supply to flow to Europe when China 🇨🇳& Asian demand rebounds in 2023.

🔹Head of the EU Energy Regulator admits, the EU’s price cap is an untested tool that may not work as intended to prevent gas price spikes. "The gas price cap is “a difficult creature, it’s unprecedented, it’s untested,”.

Last reported on this channel.

💠 Poland 🇵🇱, Spain 🇪🇸 & Greece 🇬🇷 are eager to implement the cap at a much lower price.

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

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

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

🔹Tired of a too-strong and newly weaponized US 🇺🇸 dollar, some of the world’s biggest economies are exploring ways to circumvent the US currency. Corporates around the world are selling an unprecedented portion of their debt in local currencies, wary of further dollar strength.

🔹The dollar 💵 has strengthened about 7% this year, on track for its biggest annual advance since 2015. The dollar’s strength is a huge headache for Asian nations who’ve seen prices of food purchases soar, debt-repayment burdens worsen and poverty deepen.

🔹Dollar-denominated bond sales by non-financial companies have dropped to a record low 37% of the global total in 2022. The weaponizing of the dollar & SWIFT has forced non-US investors & nations to diversify their holdings outside of the traditional safe haven of the US. Eurasian/Asian nations are stepping up negotiations with China 🇨🇳 to boost their use of the yuan.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 will start purchasing yuan on the currency market in 2023 if the country's oil and gas revenues meet expectations. The Bank of Russia will buy yuan if budget revenues from oil and gas exports exceed 8 trillion rubles ($116.57 billion).

🔹The share of the US dollar in spot transactions has halved from 84% to 42% on the Moscow Exchange. The share of the Belarusian 🇷🇺 ruble is up 📈 110X, Chinese 🇨🇳 yuan 41X, Turkish 🇹🇷 lira 17X, Kazakh 🇰🇿 tenge 13X.

🔹Russia in February stopped intervening on the currency market after its use of foreign exchange reserves was restricted by Western sanctions. Russia has since accelerated its shift toward China's currency.

🔹The 🇨🇳 yuan's share of the Russian currency market has risen to as much as 45%, up from less than 1% at the start of the year. The ruble slipped to 72 rubles:1 USD 🇺🇸, its lowest level against the dollar since April 29th. It is still trading 4% higher than it did in January.

Video courtesy Sean Foo

🔹Hungary's 🇭🇺 PM Viktor Orban concerned over the deaths of Hungarians killed in Ukraine. Ukrainian military has been disproportionately connoscripting ethnic Hungarians from the Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine.

🔹Ukraine's new regulation targets Hungarians with dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizenship, as they are no longer allowed to cross the Ukrainian border with a Hungarian passport .

🔹The Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia & the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Ukraine 🇺🇦 criticize a new minority law passed by Ukraine. Interpretation of the law will lead to ethnic Hungarian communities & organizations from the exercise of institutional political, educational & linguistic rights.

🔹The law not only reinforces the restrictions on rights previously codified in the Education & Language Law that was hurtful to Hungarian communities, but also introduces new ones, and it “does not guarantee the preservation of compact nationality settlement areas, nor the use of nationality symbols.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 & Iran 🇮🇷 are building a new transcontinental trade route and are rapidly expanding supply chains, having stepped up mutual cargo deliveries across the Caspian Sea. Russia and its ally Iran have been able to bypass the Western trade sanctions as the two countries began shipment 🚢 of goods via the North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) that connects Moscow with Asian and Persian markets.

🔹A trilateral deal was signed by Azerbaijan 🇦🇿, Russia, and Iran to facilitate the development of the INST). Azerbaijani FM: From Jan-Oct. 2022, the INSTC trade turnover exceeded $3 billion, thus growing by 20%. Discusses with Russia's FM to promote the INSTC.

🔹Kazakh 🇰🇿Minister of Trade and Integration hindrances to INSTC need to be addressed. There is a need to eliminate bottlenecks along the INSTC, it is necessary to digitalize the process of controlling cargo flow at the borders, harmonize customs procedures and coordinate tariff policy.

🔹A traditional informal summit of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has started in St. Petersburg, Russia🇷🇺. President Putin said, “unfortunately, challenges and threats in this area, coming primarily from outside, are growing every year”. Against this backdrop, he added that CIS intelligence agencies and other security institutions have been engaged in “close contacts.” Armenian 🇦🇲 PM & President Putin meets on the sidelines.

🔹Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 is developing cooperation with partners within the CIS in three dimensions: in politics and security, economic and humanitarian spheres". The country considers the establishment of a full-fledged free trade zone and the strengthening of transport interconnectivity in the CIS as priority tasks.

🔹Kazakh 🇰🇿president said, "we believe that we should work substantively on the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers, preventing protectionism. We should establish cooperation in food security,".

🔹European traders are evading sanctions with fake paperwork claiming Russian🇷🇺/Belarussian 🇧🇾firewood is from Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.

🔹France 🇫🇷 issues vouchers for firewood to help families cope.

🔹Bulgarians 🇧🇬 stock up on firewood due to less coal received from the Donbas, Russia.

🔹Fears rise in Germany 🇩🇪 over firewood theft.

Previous reports on this channel:

💠 Demand for firewood soars in Austria🇦🇹. 40% increase in wood burning stove sales in the UK .

💠 On the Swedish 🇸🇪 marketplace site Blocket, the word "firewood" 🪵 became the most searched term on the site.

💠 Firewood / wood pellet prices & demand drastically increase in Sweden 🇸🇪, Estonia 🇪🇪, Belgium 🇧🇪 & UK 🇬🇧. Germany google searches for firewood skyrockets.

💠 Centuries old forests in the Gurghiu mountains in Romania,🇷🇴 are being exploited for firewood as demand soars.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 & Türkiye 🇹🇷 have begun working on a proposal for a natural gas distribution hub based in Türkiye. The gas hub will help to ensure transparent & fair pricing in the natural gas market.

🔹Türkiye 🇹🇷 made a new natural gas discovery in the Black Sea & upgraded estimates for an already discovered field in the basin. It's reserves in the Black Sea have now increased to 710 billion cubic meters.

🔹President Erdoğan said, "we have 7 international pipelines, 4 LNG terminals & 2 UGS facilities to become an energy hub”.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The US 🇺🇸has said that they expect Türkiye to sanction Russia, & that the US can impose embargoes to stop Türkiye's violations.

💠 Saboteurs attempt to blow up 🧨 Turkstream Pipeline infrastructure.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 has agreed with Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom to re-route gas transit to Hungary via the TurkStream pipeline

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 has banned the supply of Russian oil & oil products to countries that impose a price cap, allowing deliveries to those nations only on the basis of a special permission.

🔹Russia’s actions are a response to what the decree described as unfriendly actions of foreign states & international organizations that contradict international law, & are designed “to protect the national interests of Russia”.

🔹Kremlin —"Russia has the sovereign right to respond to the G7 oil 🛢price cap, and it hasn’t consulted with OPEC+ over the response".

🔹The EU and G7 banned shipping 🚢 of Russia’s crude oil to third countries if the oil is bought above the price cap of $60 per barrel, & the EU imposed an embargo on Russian seaborne oil imports.

🔹Meanwhile the US 🇺🇸used 📉 218 million barrels of oil from it's Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR). It now contains the least amount of crude oil since December 1983 (375 million barrels).

Video courtesy RT News

🔹President 🇨🇳 Xi Jinping said during a video conference with President 🇷🇺 Putin, that China and Russia should ramp up cooperation in the trade-economic and energy sphere. Both leaders expressed their satisfaction with the rapid development of relations between the two nations.

🔹"Moscow and Beijing share the same vision of the global transformations now underway"— President Putin. When highlighting the West’s unprecedented provocations, Putin emphasized that Russia 🇷🇺 & China 🇨🇳 are defending their positions of principle & national interests.

🔹"China is ready to gradually resume the normal [cross-border] traffic with all countries, including Russia," Xi Jinping said.

🔹The Russian president would hold several more working meetings with President Xi, which will be of a non-public nature.

🔹Russia & China's space agencies recently inked a cooperation deal on mutually supplementing the Glonass & BeiDou global satellite 🛰 navigation systems. Two lunar missions are planned in 2026-2030.

🔹Finland 🇫🇮 has proposed a temporary 30% windfall tax on profits from the country's electricity companies. The tax would apply to any profits exceeding a 10% return on capital in 2023.

🔹International arbitration panel DRB, has refused to file financial claims against Russia's 🇷🇺 nuclear energy company Rosatom. Finland had earlier this year terminated a contract with the Rosatom to build the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear facility in Finland. The DRB ruled the Finnish termination of the contract to be illegal.

🔹The Finnish Fennovoima consortium, in which Rosatom owns a 34% minority stake, terminated the contract. Each side initiated legal proceedings against the other, claiming billions of dollars in damages.

🔹The Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor in 🇫🇮 Finland has begun test production of electricity again following a disruption of two months. The plant 🏭 is expected to start permanent production on 8 March 2023. This reactor has been under construction in Finland since 2005.

Video courtesy TFI Global

🔹Türkiye 🇹🇷 has agreed to fully withdraw its troops from northern Syria 🇸🇾 following tripartite talks involving Moscow, Ankara and Damascus. The three countries’ defense ministers met in Moscow 🇷🇺 for the first meeting of its kind since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

🔹Ankara and Damascus 🇸🇾also expressed a common view that the Syrian-based Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey associates with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), “are agents of Israel and the US, and pose a grave threat to both Türkiye and Syria.”

🔹Turkish 🇹🇷 Defense Minister said that “one shouldn’t expect that everything will be solved at once in a single meeting.” "The Foreign Ministers of Russia 🇷🇺 and Türkiye held a phone conversation to discuss plans for foreign policy cooperation in 2023, including further coordination of steps to facilitate a Syrian settlement.

Video courtesy AL24 News

🔹Central banks are scooping up gold 📈at the fastest pace since 1967. The flight of central banks to gold “would suggest the geopolitical backdrop is one of mistrust, doubt and uncertainty” after the US 🇺🇸 and its allies froze Russia’s 🇷🇺 dollar reserves.

🔹The international section of the 🇨🇳 Shanghai Gold Exchange will be used by Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦for its yuan to gold transactions.

🔹Gold in its role as a stable medium of exchange: Priced in US dollars, not only has the price of crude been incredibly volatile but before the Lehman crisis by June 2008 it had increased fifty-four times. Measured in gold it had merely doubled (photo).

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Central banks of China 🇨🇳, Turkey 🇹🇷, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 & India 🇮🇳 increase gold purchases.

💠 Prof. Everisto Benyera on the shift in relationship between Africa, gold & the USD.

💠 BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 plan an international reserve currency based on a basket of the national currencies, backed by commodities such as gold.

🔹"One must consider whether Western claims about the Russian economy are valid or whether perhaps Western leaders are trying to distract their populations from the collapse of their own economies." -Pan-Arab News Network Al-Mayadeen, based in Lebanon 🇱🇧.

🔹Europeans 🇪🇺 have come to see the "messaging" of endless sanctions as "perfectly rational". They have been hypnotised into "You are either ‘with the narrative’ or ‘against it’."

🔹Russia's 🇷🇺 MIR payment system aims to ensure the uninterrupted processing of transactions performed with international payment card systems in Russia. Russia has been able to redirect its supply of crude oil 🛢, being sold to Europe to Asia.

🔹The Bank of Russia decided to cut the interest rates in the country to 7.5%, in line with the levels that existed prior Feb 2022. The Ruble has already recovered to pre-sanction levels. Despite Western sanctions and blackmail, economic turnover between Russia and China 🇨🇳 has reached historic highs.

Video courtesy RT News.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 has tapped over 240 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in 2022 to lower domestic petrol/diesel prices. This is the first time that the reserve has fallen below 378 million barrels since Dec. 30, 1983.

🔹Rising oil prices, potentially pose challenges to the US plan to begin refilling the SPR using fixed-price contracts. Bullish factors include rising demand in China 🇨🇳, where tight COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted in recent weeks, and the prospect of reduced oil output from Russia 🇷🇺 in retaliation against the G-7-led price cap on Russian oil, which could send prices up further.

🔹The SPR was established after the 1973 oil 🛢 embargo, for emergency shortages, acts of terrorism, and natural disasters.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The US 🇺🇸used 📉 218 million barrels of oil from it's SPR.

💠 Oil inventories in developed economies are at their lowest level since 2004.

🔹USA 🇺🇸- Supply chain upset alert. California’s Air Resources Board to enact clean air regulations by banning large trucks and buses built before 2010 from California roads. Estimated 200,000 trucks and busses this applies to, representing 10% of commercial vehicles currently registered in the state.

🔹California has carried out its own de-kulakization by eliminating the businesses of the state’s estimated 70,000 independent truck drivers 🚚. These entrepreneurs own and operate their own trucks, carrying cargo from California ports and manufacturers to the rest of the U.S. Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) compels independent drivers to surrender the companies they’ve built and seek employment in large firms that can hire them.

🔹Only a few independent truckers are likely to survive AB 5. And other state regulations are likely to finish them off. Regional air-quality boards have declared California’s ports 🚢— the largest in the U.S. — off-limits to trucks older than three years.