Oil India Limited, the Indian-government-owned oil and gas extraction company has been a victim of a cyberattack. Perpetrators demand $7.5 million in Bitcoin as ransom, through a note from the infected PC. Affected computers removed from the LAN connections. The company’s drilling operations unaffected. Online systems are down and they are working offline.

U.S. corn futures hit life-of-contract highs today, supported by tightening global grain supplies and an uncertain production outlook. Cold weather raises concerns about a slow start to U.S. planting. Yesterday, Chicago futures rallied to their highest close since 2012. Corn prices up 50% in last 6 months.

A reminder to all subscribers who missed my article written for you all. It covers reserve currency history, geopolitics of the multi-polar world order and a different perspective on war of civilisations. https://theparadigmshifts.substack.com/p/the-power-pendulum-swings-from-west?s=w

The Former Head of Bank of Japan’s financial settlement department, Hiromi Yamaoka, stated that CBDCs could end up destroying the economy. Concerns arise on using CBDC's to achieve negative interest rates. Japan-based trading company Mitsui & Co. plans on issuing a gold pegged cryptocurrency in the country. Brazil’s central bank has unveiled plans to start a CBDC pilot program that will be launched in 2022. Central Bank of Iran announced that it notified domestic banks and credit institutions about a series of regulations related to Iran’s ‘crypto-rial’, its forthcoming CBDC.

EU is working on broadening sanctions on Russia to include oil and gas embargoes but such measures would take "several months". Oil markets reacted immediately yesterday. WTI crude climbing to $107 per barrel. Europe is split on an immediate oil embargo, with the biggest economy—Germany—not willing to go for it, for now, saying an oil ban would plunge Germany, and Europe, into a deep recession. Russia plans to sell more to Asia, using SWIFT bypasses and bilateral currency swaps.

UK - Waitrose, Sainsburys and Morrisons have started rationing the amount of sunflower cooking oil customers can buy, due to major shortages. Customers are alerted to the new restrictions of only buying two bottles of cooking oil at a time, which are applicable for online orders as well. Prices of sunflower oil in the EU remain unprecedented after Russia announced plans to limit the amount of sunflower oil exported to 1.5 million tonnes. Russia is the second-largest producer of sunflower seed and sunflower oil in the world, after Ukraine. India's palm oil imports jumped 18.7% in March from the previous month, as traders moved to secure alternatives to sunflower oil. Video- Demand in Turkey, unavailability in Germany, demand in France.

Conti ransomware gang managed to forcefully shut down the internal IT systems of Nordex wind turbine company and brought down remote access to their turbines. Conti posted about the March 31 attack on April 11, but the information was made public on April 14. Nordex didn’t reveal what kind of cyber attack occurred in late March. Since Conti hasn’t started leaking any data, it could be that the cybercriminals group is negotiating ransom demand with the company. “Nordex turbines continued operating without restrictions and wind farm communication with grid operators and energy traders was, and remains, unaffected.” Nordex implemented alternative remote control services for the majority of its fleet.

Environmental factors affecting farmers this week:
- Third consecutive dry year sets in on California, drought affecting grapes and almonds crops.
- Iraq crop failures grow due to drought, farmers look to migrate. Not all wheat farmers have access drought resistant seed.
- Hailstorm damages crops in Thakurgaon district, Bangladesh.
- Reduced wheat production due to dry spell in Haryana, northern India.
- Kuttanad, southern India- the 'Rice Bowl of Kerala'. Rice crops set to be harvested in a fortnight destroyed in pre-monsoon rains.

Crypto News:
- European Commission receives more than 10,000 public comments amid digital euro consultation.
- Russia's Ministry of Finance drafts crypto bill, for exchange and digital trading platforms’ operators’ activities to be licensed and controlled by a Russian government body.
- Two major Indian cryptocurrency exchanges have disabled deposits via a popular payment system due to unclear gov't regulations.
- North Korean hackers pulled off $620 million crypto heist from an online video game network.

North American farmers become vocal on problems they face for reliable food production.
- Higher costs for diesel fuel, electricity and machine parts are stressing Maine farmers.
- Texas farmers face increase in prices for pesticides, herbicides and insecticides.
- Fertilizer, seed, gas and diesel price inflation affects Ohio farmers.
- Arkansas farmers faced with limited availability and skyrocketing prices for herbicides.
- New Brunswick, Canada farmers express high fertilizer costs as seeding season approaches. Fertilizer Canada CEO Karen Proud said about 85% of all nitrogen fertilizers used in the eastern provinces come from Russia.

Coffee producers affected by high fertilizer prices. Brazil is the largest producer (35% worldwide) and exporter of coffee beans in the world. Brazil is highly dependent on Russian nitrogen based fertilizers and potash fertilizers from Belarus. Both countries are facing western sanctions. Coffee futures have been volatile on the COMEX. In Feb, prices hit 100% increase in a year, now stands at a 74% increase in a year, $2.24 per/lb.

US - CF Industries Holdings (major nitrogen fertilizer producer) warned of delays in shipment of its nitrogen fertilizers. Union Pacific mandated certain shippers to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad. CF planned to increase fertilizer shipments to both U.S. coasts from the world's largest nitrogen complex in Louisiana to help offset shortages. This is not possible again and have to reduce its shipments by nearly 20%.

US Avian Flu- About 23 million birds, mostly poultry, and turkeys — have been culled in efforts to stem the spread of avian flu over the past two months. The current strain of bird flu poses a low risk to humans. US egg prices more than doubled in March. Free range eggs are no longer available on UK supermarket shelves, as the “largest ever outbreak” of bird flu has kept hens inside for months.

If China’s disruptive lockdowns persist, they could fuel global inflation, slow the pace of exports shipped from the ‘world’s factory’, and weaken demand in the world’s largest consumer market. Locking down Shanghai has had a major impact on the world’s largest container port, and shipping lines are struggling to adapt. Shanghai is a critical port in the global supply chain. Shanghai handled 43.5 million cargo containers in 2020, more than triple the throughput of Rotterdam, Netherlands, the busiest port outside Asia.

Authorities in Puerto Rico say an electronic toll collection system was the target of a cyberattack over the weekend. The system, known as AutoExpreso, is run by a private operator called Professional Account Management. It wasn’t immediately clear when the system would be back online and whether any confidential information was stolen.

Almost 200,000 New Yorkers left without power after late-season snowstorm. Monday/Tuesday winter storm that hit New York, caused power outages across upstate New York from the Southern Tier to the Adirondack Mountains. (Always be prepared with a little extra candles, torchlights, batteries, propane, water and food for outages due to inclement weather).

High natural gas and coal prices begins to have a negative effect in south Asia.

India risks a repeat of last summer’s power outages as soaring temperatures boost demand for coal that’s used to generate about 70% of the country’s electricity. If India can’t close the coal shortfall, the nation will be threatened by power outages and the economy will take a hit as industrial output suffers.

Pakistan is cutting electricity to households and industry as the cash-strapped country can no longer afford to buy coal or natural gas from overseas to fuel its power plants.

Kazakhstan announced temporary quotas on exports of wheat and wheat flour. Kazakh flour mills warned that they were “running out of supplies and going out of business. Kazakhstan is a wheat producer and also imports from Russia for milling and boosts exports. They are cut-off from importing wheat from Russia.

Turkey indefinitely suspends the export of butter and cream.
Pakistan bans the export of sugar to reduce local sugar prices.
Tunisia imposes fruit and vegetables export ban to all countries – including its largest importer Libya.

The Japanese Yen is skidding toward its longest losing streak in at least half a century. Despite rising prices for imports, Japan’s central bank has kept its key interest rate at minus 0.1% for years, trying to pull the economy out of the doldrums. The government reported a bigger-than-expected trade deficit largely due to soaring costs for imports of oil, food and other necessities.

Costa Rica government confirms that the computer systems of the finance ministry remained disabled after a cyberattack on official platforms the previous day. tax and customs platforms had been temporarily suspended for external users. Internal financial systems and payroll services for the education ministry and the supreme electoral court were also suspended. Conti ransomware group has claimed responsibility and asks for ransom. Photo- Ransom messages to gov't from Conti group.

The U.S. exported the most oil and petroleum products in its history last week as countries across the world work to replace Russian supplies. The US recently began to release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the US Strategic Reserves to help reduce high fuel prices. "The U.S. is acting as the barrel of last resort to a global energy market hungry for oil." JPM's commodity strategist -"A full and immediate Russian oil embargo is likely to hurt European consumers more than Russian producers in the near term. More importantly, a full, immediate ban would likely drive Brent crude oil prices to $185/bbl."