Breaking - Saudi Arabia alleges Iran-aligned Houthi group launched four attacks on the kingdom that targeted a water desalination plant in the city of Al-Shaqeeq, an Aramco facility in Jizan, a power station in the southern Dhahran al Janub city, and a gas facility in Khamis Mushait. Firefighters have the fire under control at the Aramco facility at the present time as shown in video with footage of the strike earlier in the day.

Oil prices rise this morning in Asia markets. Uncertainty after attack on Saudi Arabia Aramco facility and sanctions on Russia has pushed oil futures market bidding higher. OPEC+, showed some producers are still falling short of their agreed supply quotas.
Japan urges the United Arab Emirates to pump more oil to calm markets. Oil futures remain in backwardation, a bullish pattern marked by near-term prices commanding a premium to those further out.

Saudi Arabia has announced that they bear “no responsibility” for any shortages in the global supply of oil in the wake of attacks on Aramco facilities yesterday by Yemeni forces. Oil prices continue to climb. Saudi Arabia’s illegitimate sea and air blockade around Yemen has pushed millions to the brink of famine in the Yemen. Gulf Arab oil producers have so far resisted pressure from the Biden administration to pump more crude to help bring down oil prices abiding by limits in oil production volume increases.

Avian influenza (bird flu) is spreading in US and UK, forcing farmers to cull flocks. Residents of Palmyra, Wisconsin USA are concerned about nearly 3 million culled chickens from farms to be buried in their area. Farmers in Iowa, USA forced to cull 5.3 million chickens. USDA confirms culling 12.6 million chickens and turkeys in the past 2 months. Shoppers in the UK can no longer buy free-range eggs since bird flu outbreaks places birds under lockdown and eggs are labelled as ‘barn eggs’. Germany warns egg supply crunch will appear by summer due to feed shortages. Egg shortages have begun to appear in Uganda, Africa with a 25% price increase within the last month. Malaysia experiences delay in the arrival of imported frozen chicken due to the shortage of supply in the exporting countries.

The labour dispute that shut down operations at Canadian Pacific Railway which started on Sunday is set to aggravate a shortage of commodities. The impact of the strike could be felt south of the border as CP’s rail network runs as far south as Kansas City in the US. United States imports 86% of its potash from Canada, much of it by rail. This is the latest blow to Canada’s battered supply chain, when in 2021 floods in British Columbia suspended access to Canada’s biggest port. Canada's commodity-heavy main stock index climbed to a record high yesterday. Canadian crude exports by rail topped 131,000 barrels a day in December 2021. "So from coal to potash to fertilizer, animal feed, you name it, everything's going to take a hit now."

UPDATE- Canadian Pacific has agreed with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) — Train and Engine Negotiating Committee — to enter into a binding arbitration. Workers will return to work this afternoon as negotiations continue. This type of arbitration is a means of resolving the worker dispute outside of a courtroom in which the decision is binding upon both CP and the workers. Except under very limited circumstances, decisions made in binding arbitration by the arbitrator - including awards of damages - must be honored and cannot be appealed to a court of law.

US lawmakers filed legislation to ban Russian uranium imports, calling the dependence on foreign uranium “simply unacceptable.” Uranium energy companies stock price climbs. Russia enriches more uranium for use in nuclear plants than any other country in the world. U.S. plants typically refuel every 1-2 years with 2-3 years stockpile, so no short-term fuel shortage for existing plants. converting mined heavy metal into a fuel can only be processed at specialized facilities with Russia controlling 35% of world market. Burdening energy prices in the UK has prompted UK's PM to announce a return to nuclear energy. US activists protest after a conservation nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust report shows, that White Mesa Mill the last functioning uranium mill in the U.S., stores over 700 million pounds of radioactive waste.

World-wide wheat price increase effects setting in. Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, with Russia and Ukraine accounting for 80% of their wheat imports in 2021, has implemented price controls on unsubsidised bread. Lebanon, suffering an economic crisis over the past 2 years, now has supermarkets hoarding flour to sell at higher prices with bread up 70% in the past month. US wheat farmers concerned about how higher fertilizer cost will affect acreage yields. Agreement being pursued to enable stakeholders in the wheat chain to conclude binding contracts with Slovenian farmers so that Slovenian wheat stays in Slovenia when harvested. Pasta across supermarket chains in UK up 56%-67% in 6 months. Italy experiences pasta shortages and bread prices almost double in 4 months. Pasta prices surged 24% y-o-y in Denmark. In Kyrgyzstan, flour mills and government signed a cooperation agreement for the flour mills to get tax benefits, in exchange to provide the local market preferably with flour.

Cyberattack - Nestlé, the world’s largest food group by market cap, has denied recent claims by Anonymous that they had successfully stole over 10 GB of data including passwords and emails in a campaign to stop Nestle operating in Russia. Anonymous said only a sample of what is stolen has been released online. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy singled out Nestle in a speech to protesters on Saturday in the Swiss capital of Bern. Nestle today suspends sales of KitKat and Nesquik Brands in Russia.

Australia's top alumina refineries choked off flows of alumina to Russia's United Co. Rusal International PJSC, the world's second-largest aluminum company by production output. Australia accounts for 20% of Russia's alumina supply, also called aluminum oxide, which is derived from bauxite ore and sent to refiners and turned into alumina. Bulk carriers then ship the alumina to smelters in Russia, where it's then transformed into aluminum. Germany-based TRIMET became the latest smelter to cut aluminium output in Europe because of higher energy prices. Aluminum Corp of China Ltd, says its net income surged 564.6% in 2021. The US has agreed to lift tariffs on British aluminum.

Fertilizer shortages resulting from sanctions on Russia are now affecting coffee farmers. In Nicaragua, coffee farmers are slashing fertilizer purchases just to make ends meet. In Guatemala, growers are diluting nutrients to stretch scarce supplies. In Costa Rica, producers are betting that their soil holds enough lingering nutrients to carry them through the next planting season. Unaffordable fertilizer and delayed rain affecting coffee farmers in Kenya. Last week, the Green Markets North America Fertilizer Price Index jumped almost 10% to an all-time high. Photo- Coffee futures price-Potash fertilizer producers - Urea (nitrogen based) fertilizer price.

Russia will sell energy resources to unfriendly countries for rubles/ gold, while processing payments from friendly countries in their national currencies (yuan, lira, dinar), maybe even bitcoin too. Putin added that “Russia will continue to supply gas in accordance with the volumes and according to the pricing principles concluded in the contracts”. “Only the currency of payment will change”. Tying the ruble directly to oil/gas makes it “sound money” of sorts. Ruble rebounds on news and recovers losses from last month. The US Treasury issues a warning that gold-related transactions involving Russia may be subjected to sanctions. IMF concerned that Western sanctions on Russia, & confiscation of Russian USD/EUR reserves, could backfire by making other countries more reluctant to hold their own foreign reserves in USD/EUR.

Breaking - Video compilation of Saudi Arabia's Aramco facility in Jeddah hit a few hours ago by a an alleged Yemen/Iranian backed Houthi rebel missile launched at the facility. This is the second attack in the past week. Oil was trading down for the day and then quickly rose, with UK Brent crude @ $120 & US WTI @ $113 per barrel. Videos emerged on social media from observers. Updates in comments.

U.S. distillate fuel oil inventories, the category including diesel, fell by 2 million barrels to 112 million barrels last week. A statistical analysis update from ZeroHedge.

Update on NATO action plans in Ukraine while Russia creates a new economic reality.
Credit to: SouthFront- crowdfunded military/intelligence analysis. They have been censored on all major platforms. Support via crypto BTC, BCH or XMR. https://southfront.org/donate/
*This channel has no affiliation with SouthFront.

German authorities are preparing the economy for possible energy rationing. Numerous companies have contacted legal firms because they have received letters from their natural gas suppliers telling them that their energy supplies may be rationed or shut down in the future. The bosses of three of the largest commodity traders - Vitol, Gunvor and Trafigura - estimate that up to 3 million barrels of oil and its products could be lost from Russia every day as a result of the sanctions. Diesel is therefore most threatened by a "systemic" shortage. German government plans to fund a one-off €300 energy allowance for workers. Germany was the most expensive major European economy in terms of petrol gas prices most recently, as a gallon was going for $9.12. EU energy dependence infographic in the comments.

UK - Inflation up to 6.2% in February, highest level since 1992. Sunflower oil prices have more than doubled. The gov't relaxed rules to allow food producers to replace sunflower oil with alternatives without updating the packaging. Customers will no longer be able to buy free-range eggs in supermarkets after British hens spent the last four months indoors due to the risk of avian flu outbreaks. Milk production is starting to fall as sharp rises in cost of fuel, feed, and fertiliser outstrip increases in farm-gate prices. Firing of port workers by P&O may lead to shortages of fresh products like vegetables, fruit and cheese.

High natural gas prices in Europe results in ammonia (NH3) fertilizer (Western Europe NH3 Index) 4x up from a year ago. Sanctions on Russia has prevented European natural gas suppliers from sourcing more gas that has already been contracted for with Russia and are unable to make new contracts because Russia is cut-off from SWIFT/sanctions on doing business/prevention from buying rubles to pay Russia in a new contractual agreement as a result of sanctions. In addition, NH3 fertilizer suppliers unable to buy Russian produced NH3 (Russia is a major NH3 exporter to the world). The North America fertilizer index has doubled in the past year. World food security now at risk resulting in food price inflation.

Cyber Security week update- Google issued the warning that Chrome on Windows, macOS and Linux is vulnerable to a new ‘zero-day’ hack. Chrome security update required. LAPSUS$ hacking group has hit Microsoft, getting into Azure DevOps source code repositories and leaking source code for Cortana and several other Microsoft projects. A Windows local privilege escalation zero-day vulnerability that Microsoft has failed to fully address for several months now, allows users to gain administrative privileges in Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. Windows releases security update patch. Microsoft said that the hackers had “limited access” to source code. LAPSU$ seems interested in holding the source code ransom for profit.

WTO warns sanctions against Russia from Western countries are driving up global food prices, as Black Sea ports used to export grain remain blocked which is crucial for survival for 35 African countries. China’s pig farmers, suffering record losses due to surging feed costs, switching to lower quality grain from pricier soymeal. Sanctions on world's #3 & #2 potash fertilizer producers Belarus & Russia drives high costs for farmers worldwide with high diesel prices making it worse. Nearly 100,000 Italian farms are on the verge of closure due to skyrocketing diesel, fertilizers, fodder and seeds costs. 70% of aggregate potato production in Cyprus has been destroyed due to frost wave. Maine, US potato growers expecting hit after potato processing plant.

Shortages of fertilizer due to sanctions on major ammonia (NH3) and potash fertilizer producers Russia and Belarus is worsening. The Ghana Cocoa Board warns of fertilizer shortage for farmers. NH3 on Tampa US Price Index surge to record high of $1,625 per metric ton. Virginia, US farmers say NH3 and phosphate fertilizer prices are not sustainable. If Russia bans grain exports to the world due to all out sanctions by the west, severe grain shortages will result. Pennsylvania, US farmers see 70% fertilizer price increase in last year. Black Sea cut-off for trade, shippers say Baltic Sea even more costly to get Russian and Belarussian fertilizer.