BlackMask Financial – Page 374 – BlackMask Breaking News

April 28, 2022 2:12 pm

Germany No Longer Opposed To Russian Oil Embargo

Germany, the main opponent of a full embargo on Russian oil imports into the European Union so far, has dropped its opposition to a ban, if given time to procure alternatives, government officials told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The EU started earlier this month tentative discussions on imposing an embargo on Russian oil, but the bloc was split on a ban on Russian energy imports. The biggest European economy—Germany—resisted an immediate oil embargo, saying an oil ban would plunge Germany, and Europe, into a deep recession. Germany, Hungary, and Austria, as well as some other EU members, opposed an immediate outright ban on Russian oil, although Germany signaled earlier this month that it could end its dependence on Russian oil and stop importing Moscow’s oil entirely by the end of this year. In a major shift in position, German representatives to the EU signaled on Wednesday that Germany is dropping its opposition to a full embargo on Russian oil on the condition that it is given time to find a replacement to the Russian oil supply, the Journal reported, citing two officials. The German policy shift comes after the government announced it would send heavy weaponry to Ukraine for the first time, after weeks of pressure on Berlin to provide military assistance to Kyiv. The shift in Germany’s position on a Russian oil embargo could encourage other still hesitant EU members to support a ban on Russian oil imports, analysts say. Earlier this week, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that a full embargo is now “manageable” for Germany and that the country hoped to find a replacement for Russian oil within days. According to Habeck, Germany is now “very, very close” to making a full Russian oil embargo a reality. Germany has dropped Russian oil imports to around 12% of its total oil imports, down from 35% prior to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. NN: a lot of sizzle but where is the steak. You can not wish oil into your tanks and gas into your pipeline. Thier is an “emergency plan” with a lot of blow and go and no details. Putin will call their bluff. Expect a long cold and expensive winter the world over And for some a hungry one!!

April 28, 2022 2:04 pm

World Bank Sees High Energy Prices For Years After Russia’s War In Ukraine

World bank: Russian invasion of Ukraine will alter energy trade flows for years to come.
Elevated commodity prices will worsen inflationary pressures globally.
The World Bank expects crude prices to average $100 this year.

The biggest energy shock since the 1970s is expected to keep oil and other energy prices elevated for years as the Russian invasion of Ukraine is changing energy trade flows and consumption and production, the World Bank said in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook report on Tuesday. Prices of food commodities have also soared, and together with the high energy prices and shocks to international oil trade, those elevated commodity prices will worsen inflationary pressures globally, the World Bank said. The price of Brent Crude oil is expected to average $100 per barrel this year, which would be a 42-percent increase from 2021 and its highest annual level since 2013. Non-energy prices are set to rise by about 20 percent in 2022, with the largest increases in commodities where Russia or Ukraine are key exporters, according to the World Bank. Brent Crude prices are expected to moderate to $92 a barrel in 2023, down from the expected 2022 average, but well above the five-year average of $60 a barrel. European natural gas prices are forecast to be twice as high in 2022 as they were in 2021, while coal prices are projected to be 80 percent higher, with both prices at all-time highs, the World Bank notes.

“The war is also leading to more costly patterns of trade that could result in longer-lasting inflation. It is expected to cause a major diversion of trade in energy,” the bank said.

“Higher commodity prices exacerbate already elevated inflationary pressures around the world,” noted Ayhan Kose, Director of the World Bank’s Prospects Group. The bank sees high commodity prices disrupting or delaying the energy transition in the near term. “Several countries have announced plans to increase production of fossil fuels. High metal prices are also driving up the cost of renewable energy, which depends on metals such as aluminum and battery-grade nickel,” the World Bank said. NN: The world has forever changed… $100 oil is the stark new reality with run away inflation a real estate crash and a stock market wipe out like never seen before. The great democracies stopped being self sufficient on their energy and food and key commodities. And thought they could buy from their enemies without being held hostage… wrong, Wrong, WRONG

April 28, 2022 11:43 am

Putin natgas cutoff shakes up Europe at little cost to Kremlin

Cutting off natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria cost Russian President Vladimir Putin very little — but it is adding stress on European countries wrestling over how to reduce energy imports that are feeding the Kremlin’s war chest and keep a united front on the war in Ukraine. European Union officials say yielding to Putin’s demand to pay for gas in rubles would violate Western sanctions imposed over the war. Poland and Bulgaria were cut off after refusing the demand and say they will manage because they were already working to end their dependence on Russian energy supplies. But analysts say there is enough ambiguity in the European stance to let the Kremlin continue its efforts to undermine unity among the 27 member countries — even if an implied threat to cut off major customers such as Germany and Italy may turn out to be an empty one because it would cost Russia heavily. The decision to end gas shipments sent a chill through officials wondering how their utility companies will heat homes and generate electricity next winter but cost Russia very little revenue. Both Poland and Bulgaria are relatively minor customers who were about to end their contracts at the end of the year anyway, giving Putin maximum disruption of what he regards as a hostile alliance for only minimal costs. Poland’s entire gas import was only 10 billion cubic meters per year, out of total European imports of 155 billion from Russia. Gas in roughly that amount is already flowing to Poland from other European countries pitching in to help. So Russian energy giant Gazprom has lost relatively little revenue but opened a new front in its confrontation with Europe. “He wants to fragment European countries and their stance toward energy diversification and the overall stance against Russia,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy expert and senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. “What he is creating is a system where he can basically divide countries, as we are seeing, for the ones that don’t want to comply with this new scheme will be cut off, while others will try to comply and essentially go against the European Union indication.” European payments for oil and gas amount to $850 million a day even as governments condemn the war, the result of decades in which Russia was regarded as a reliable supplier of cheap gas despite warnings from Poland and other central and Eastern European countries that Russia could use it as a weapon. While Europe needs the oil and gas to power vehicles, generate electricity and keep industry churning, the sales are the main pillar of the Kremlin’s budget. European Union countries or companies bowing to the terms of a Russian presidential decree that insists they pay their gas bills in rubles will be in breach of the bloc’s sanctions, senior EU officials said Thursday. Around 97% of European gas contracts with Russia are in euros or dollars. Under Putin’s new payment system, the Kremlin has said importers would have to establish an account in dollars or euros at Russia’s third-largest bank, Gazprombank, then a second account in rubles. The importer would pay the gas bill in euros or dollars and direct the bank to exchange the money for rubles. Before the conversion is made, Russian authorities could say the companies have not paid because the funds have not been turned into rubles in the second bank account. The sanctions violation essentially comes with the use of the second bank account because the ruble conversion involves a transaction involving Russia’s sanctioned central bank. The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, says companies could remain in compliance by paying in euros or dollars per their contract, then making a “clear declaration” to Gazprombank that their payment obligations are over. That leaves an opening for the Kremlin to accept the declaration or not — a potential pressure point for member countries. The two-account workaround means Putin “is augmenting his discretionary powers, because it will be up to Gazprom to decide if and how to provide exemptions for this conversion into rubles scheme,” said Tagliapietra, the energy expert. “If this fragmentation happens, it will be extremely difficult for Europe to coordinate any action on the energy diversification front.” That could slow progress on achieving the EU’s goal of cutting Russian gas imports by two-thirds by year’s end and undermine unity on further sanctions, this time aimed at the Kremlin’s main money-maker, oil and gas sales. “How can we have a joint energy response if different countries are doing, or not, business with Putin?” he said. NN: Putin is a master at conquering and dividing. Forget the spin. Europe has at last 5 years left on its energy prison sentence…… Europe calls the Ruble payment demand blackmail. Of course with sanctions Putin has no easy way to be paid in Dollars and Euro’s……

April 28, 2022 11:24 amApril 28, 2022 11:27 am

Biden asks Congress for additional $33 billion in Ukraine aid

This would be on top of the $13.6 billion in military, economic and humanitarian assistance that U.S. lawmakers authorized last month

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will ask Congress on Thursday for $33 billion to support Ukraine — a dramatic escalation of U.S. funding for its war against Russia — as well as new legal tools to tighten sanctions and siphon assets from Russian oligarchs, U.S. officials said. The vast funding request includes over $20 billion for weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as $8.5 billion in direct economic assistance to the government and $3 billion in humanitarian and food security aid. Biden is also seeking the ability to seize more money from Russian oligarchs to pay for the war effort. His proposal would have lawmakers hand his administration new capabilities, letting U.S. officials seize more oligarchs’ assets, give the cash from those seizures to Ukraine and further criminalize sanctions dodging, the White House said. The steps include letting the Justice Department use the strict U.S. racketeering law once deployed against the mafia, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, to build cases against people who evade sanctions. Biden also wants to give prosecutors more time to build such cases by extending the statute of limitations on money laundering prosecutions to 10 years, instead of five. He would also make it a criminal act to hold money knowingly taken from corrupt dealings with Russia, according to a summary of the proposals. The measures are part of U.S. efforts to isolate and punish Russia for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, as well as to help Kyiv recover from a war that has reduced cities to rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad. The new request represents the full amount U.S. officials expect to need through September, the end of the fiscal year. U.S. military aid to Ukraine alone has topped $3 billion since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and remove fascists in Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext. The United States and its European allies have frozen $30 billion of assets held by wealthy individuals with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and art, the Biden administration has said. NN: its starts out small a billion or two in “aide” Then it goes to 3 or 4 or even 5 billion in more “aide” Then it jumps now ANOTHER 33 billion is “aide” You have to understand the talk… AIDE is bombs and weapons of death and destruction of all kinds… See that how wars grows. The more bombs the more dead people and the more dead people the more AIDE YOU NEED. WELCOME TO WORLD WAR THREE….. It will be them ost fun yet!!

April 28, 2022 10:48 am

Several European traders have started to pay for Russian gas in roubles – sources

Some European traders have started to pay Russia for gas sales in roubles, while large clients have yet to do so, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

“Several traders, maybe more than five, have started payments,” one source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that countries he terms “unfriendly” must pay for gas in roubles or be cut off. Under the new Russian payment system, buyers are obliged to deposit euros or dollars into an account at Gazprombank, which has then to convert them into roubles, place the proceeds in another account owned by the foreign buyer and transfer the payment in Russian currency to Gazprom. The scheme was designed as a response to sweeping Western sanctions against Russia following the start of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. Gazprom and Gazprombank did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. The European Commission has accused Moscow of blackmail over its demand to be paid in roubles but in an advisory note issued last week, the Commission said buyers of Russian gas could participate in the scheme if they could confirm payment was complete once they had deposited euros, as opposed to later when the euros were converted to roubles. Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday after they refused to pay in roubles under the new arrangement stipulated by Putin. A senior European Union official said on Thursday that Poland and Bulgaria both used their existing method to pay for Russian gas before Moscow cut their gas supplies, and the countries did not comply with Moscow’s proposed mechanism to pay in roubles. The Kremlin has said payments for deliveries that took place after Putin’s decree took effect were expected in May. A source named May 20 as “validation” date for payments. There have been mixed signals from Gazprom’s top consumers of gas about the rouble scheme of payments. Three sources said on Thursday that Italian energy group Eni has yet to make a decision regarding the payment scheme Russia has introduced and is waiting for clarity on whether it amounts to a breach of sanctions. Uniper, Germany’s main importer of Russian gas, said on Monday it would be possible to pay for future supplies without breaching European Union sanctions. However, it later said that no decision had been made. Hungary has said it plans to pay for Russian gas in euros through Gazprombank, which will convert the payment into roubles to meet the new requirement. NN: Slowly they will go to the showers with Putin AND PICK UP THE SOAP.. And at night they will receive their Jail house tattoo. Thats what happens when they get in bed with the devil!

April 27, 2022 2:33 pm

Austria agrees to pay for Russian gas in rubles

OREANDA-NEWS. Austria and the oil and gas company OMV have accepted the terms of payment for Russian gas under a new scheme – through an account with Gazprombank, where euros will be converted into rubles, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said at a press conference. According to him, quoted by TASS, the Austrian side came to the conclusion that the new payment scheme does not contradict the sanctions measures. We, that is OMV, have accepted the terms of payment, as has the German government. They [the conditions] were found to be consistent with the conditions of the sanctions. It was important to us,” he said. Nehammer said in April that Austria was 80% dependent on Russian gas. According to him, the country’s leadership is already trying to find a solution in order to refuse energy resources from Russia. He also noted that Austria will be able to become independent of Russian oil supplies only in a few years, since at this stage it is impossible to do so. On April 11, in Russia, in Novo-Ogaryovo, a meeting was held between Nehammer and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nehammer, in an interview with Austrian media, said that during the meeting, Putin assured him of the stability of Russian gas supplies, as well as the possibility of paying in euros. The chancellor added that in the event of an embargo on Russian gas, Austrian industry and households in the country would suffer serious damage. At the end of March, Putin signed a decree on the transfer of payments for gas into rubles with “unfriendly countries.” Poland and Bulgaria refused to switch to a new payment scheme, which is why Gazprom stopped supplying gas to these countries. NN: When your fucked your fucked…. You might as well lay back and enjoy it. Europe has no one to blame but themselves and the Greeniewennies………

April 27, 2022 2:24 pm

Billionaires and the 1% are using ‘dynasty trusts’ to avoid estate and gift taxes

The fate of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan to help working American families afford the necessities of life and combat the climate crisis — all paid for with fairer taxes on the rich and corporations — remains uncertain. But even in the plan’s original, most robust form, proposed tax hikes failed to confront a serious threat to America’s economy and society: trusts that multiply the fortunes of mega-rich families tax-free — forever. Congress still has a chance to correct this omission. The rich have always passed their money down to heirs, but a “dynasty trust” is a relatively new and highly troubling mechanism. This trust ensures huge family fortunes grow faster over generations by avoiding estate and related taxes meant to guard against economic oligarchy. Exploiting estate- and gift-tax loopholes, America’s billionaires and other super-rich are poised to transfer, largely tax-free, an estimated $21 trillion of wealth to their descendants over the next 25 years. The rest of us will lose out on trillions of dollars (our rough estimate is $8 trillion) in revenue that otherwise would be collected if the U.S. system of taxing the intergenerational transfer of great wealth worked as originally intended. Those trillions will be unavailable for schools, housing, healthcare, childcare and fighting the climate crisis that threatens us all, rich and poor. Ultrarich families first gained iconic status during the 19^th century’s Gilded Age. The Rockefellers, DuPonts, Mellons and other wealthy clans founded by early industrialists are still with us. Those original dynasties benefited early on from the absence of federal income and estate taxes, allowing their wealth to at first accumulate unimpeded and then flow unchecked to the first generations that followed. That buildup of dynastic wealth was curbed a bit in the middle of the 20th century by robust taxation of high incomes and large estates. But over the past 40 years, and especially recently, trends have combined to supercharge the creation and almost unlimited growth of family dynasties. The top five dynastic families saw their inflation-adjusted wealth increase 34-fold between 1983 and 2020, to $528 billion from $15.5 billion. But these old-line family dynasties pale in comparison to the new breed of uber-wealthy. The five richest billionaires in the U.S. at the end of 2021 — including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos — were worth a combined $845 billion, according to Forbes. Each of the five was worth more than $100 billion, an unimaginable accumulation of wealth aided by lower taxes on both the rich and corporations. With such seed money, the family fortunes of these centi-billionaires are making the old-money dynasties look quaint. Unless the U.S. rehabilitates its hobbled estate-tax system soon, some family fortunes could pass the trillion-dollar mark within a generation. States — most notably South Dakota — have loosened their laws to allow wealth-protecting trusts to go on forever. Tax reform will face resistance, since an entire industry now shields these dynasties from estate and gift taxes. Accountants and tax lawyers have developed exotically named vehicles such as the Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust to avoid federal taxes on the intergenerational transfer of great wealth, sometimes in perpetuity. States — most notably South Dakota — have loosened their laws to allow wealth-protecting trusts to go on forever, rather than requiring them to close up shop after a few generations as was true in the past. The results are disturbing. Bloomberg, with our assistance, recently showed how Nike founder Phil Knight (worth $61 billion in December 2021) used loopholes to transfer, tax-free, more than $6 billion of Nike shares to a trust for his descendants. The techniques used to build these fortresses of wealth are complicated, but the ways of breaching them are not. Congress must change the rules so that wealthy creators of trusts can no longer easily manipulate their money and the law to dodge taxes. That means ending the rampant lowballing of assets; the fiction of multiple parties controlling the same fortune, switching who’s in charge depending on what avoids the most taxes, and other accounting sleights of hand. More than a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt warned of the pernicious effects of accumulating family fortunes and proposed the estate tax as a solution. Now we must confront the same problem, grown many times worse than anything Roosevelt imagined. The otherwise worthy tax reforms in the original Build Back Better legislation failed to address the issue. Congress must ensure that the version of the Build Back Better law which finally passes takes this challenge head on. NN: Your Welcome!!!!!!!

April 27, 2022 10:35 am

Gazprom confirms halting gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria

WARSAW/SOFIA/KYIV (Reuters) – Russian energy firm Gazprom said on Wednesday it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in roubles, the Kremlin’s toughest retaliation yet to international sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Poland confirmed that supplies had been cut, while Bulgaria said it would find out soon. Both accused Gazprom of breaching longstanding supply contracts. “Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war,” Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said. Gazprom said in a statement it had “completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz and PGNiG due to absence of payments in roubles,” referring to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies. President Vladimir Putin demanded that buyers from “unfriendly” countries pay for gas in roubles or be cut off, starting from the date payments are due for April. The European Union has rejected this demand as rewriting contracts that called for payment in euros. Poland receives its Russian gas through the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Russia’s huge gas fields in the Arctic far north, which continues west to supply Germany and other European countries. Bulgaria is supplied through pipes over Turkey. Polish state-owned PGNiG confirmed its supplies from Gazprom had been cut but said it was still supplying its own clients as needed. “Cutting gas supplies is a breach of contract and PGNiG reserves the right to seek compensation and will use all available contractual and legal means to do so,” the company said.

Supplies from Gazprom cover about 50% of Poland’s consumption and about 90% of Bulgaria’s. Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76% full. Bulgaria has said it is in talks to try to import liquefied natural gas through Turkey and Greece.

Russia’s energy exports had until now continued largely unhindered since the war began, the biggest loophole in sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West. Kyiv has called on Europe to stop funding Moscow’s war effort by cutting off energy imports that bring Russia hundreds of millions of dollars a day. ( NB: Please note the FACT that the Ukrainians want everyone else to cut gas supplies from Russia…. While it continues to trans ship gas from Russia to Europe… Is this not insanity…. at the end of the day its all about the money!) Germany, the biggest buyer of Russian energy, said this week it is hoping to stop importing Russian oil within days. (NB>> hahahahahaha the trick is its summer so they MIGNT be able to do so for a few months at best. The problem is they will depelte their reserves in storgae just in time foir winte…) But weaning Europe off cheap and abundant Russian natural gas, which heats its houses, fuels its factories and drives its electric power plants, would be a far more disruptive prospect. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was “beginning the gas blackmail of Europe”. “Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies,” Yermak said. Since the Russian invasion force was driven back at the outskirts of Kyiv last month, Moscow has refocused its operation on eastern Ukraine, starting a new offensive from several directions to fully capture two provinces known as the Donbas

. Ukraine’s general staff acknowledged that Russia had made gains at a number of areas in the east, capturing outskirts of the towns of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody on one front, and the Zarichne and Novoshtokivske settlements in Donetsk region.

Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles had struck an arms depot in Zaporizhzhia region housing weapons from the United States and European countries. An aide to the mayor of the port city of Mariupol said Russian forces had renewed their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant, where fighters and some civilians are holed up. No agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday, aide Petro Andryushchenko also said. Ukraine said it had attacked Snake Island, a Black Sea outpost seized by Russia early in the war when defenders became heroes to Ukrainians for rejecting a Russian demand to surrender with an obscenity. There has been increasing concern over the prospect of the conflict widening to neighbouring Moldova, where pro-Russian separatists in a small region occupied since the 1990s by Russian troops have reported several explosions in recent days. The invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad. Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West call this is a pretext for an unprovoked war to seize territory. The United States and its allies have increasingly been supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons for the fight in the east. More than 40 countries met at a U.S. air base in Germany on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine’s defence. Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including Gepard light tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns. British military intelligence said Ukraine retained control over most of its air space and Russia had failed to effectively destroy Ukraine’s air force or its air defences. NN: This is war and do not let anyone tell you any different. Ukraine is not winning the war any more then the US won the Vietnam war. Walter Cronkite and now CNN spin to the contrary. And by the way its spreading……… Even to a Wall Mart store and gas station near you.

April 26, 2022 2:20 pm

Polish Media: Russia Has Halted Gas Supplies To The Country….Oil extends gains, WTI up over 3%

https://youtu.be/vWkej9ZjajY

Poland announced on Tuesday that it was preparing to impose sanctions on 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, as Polish media report that Russia has stopped gas deliveries to the country, causing European gas prices to get hit with a double-digit surge. Poland’s One.pl online news channel reported that Russia had suspended gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract, citing off-the-record sources claiming that the Ministry of Climate has now gathered its crisis team to deal with the situation. The Polish news agency said that there had been no announcement from Russia, though Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened to cut Poland off from gas. An official announcement is expected from the Polish authorities later today, according to One.pl. Earlier on Tuesday, Poland’s Interior Minister said the country would impose sanctions on 50 oligarchs and companies after passing a law earlier this month that would allow the authorities to freeze Russian assets and ban imports of Russian coal, Reuters reported. Moscow earlier demanded that Europe switch to paying for Russian gas in rubles or face supply suspensions. Poland has refused to comply with this demand. European natural gas futures were trading 4% higher on the day (as of 12:36pm EST).

Outside of Ukraine itself, Poland is the European country most relentlessly pushing a halt to imports of Russian oil, gas and coal across the bloc, hoping to strangle Putin’s war chest. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki launched a highly public mobile billboard campaign last attempting to garner more public support for the sacrifices necessary to “#stopRussianoil”. NN: Lets see they want to stop Putin who suppies 40% of their energy. I wodrer if that potato whiskey they drink causes brain damage… Since their is no replacement for Russian oil and natural gas… Stop russia they say by shooting yourself in the ass. Sounds smart to me

April 26, 2022 10:11 am

Oil steadies after sharp fall, focus on China growth

Oil prices bounced on Tuesday, steadying after a sharp fall of 4% in the previous session, as worries over China’s fuel demand were soothed by the central bank’s pledge to support an economy hit by renewed COVID-19 curbs. Brent crude futures were up 59 cents, or 0.58%, at $102.91 a barrel after rising to $103.93 earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate contracts were up 34 cents, or 0.35%, at $98.88 per barrel at 0658 GMT after climbing to $99.82 a barrel in early trade. Both contracts had settled around 4% lower on Monday, with Brent falling as much as $7 a barrel in the session and WTI dipping roughly $6 a barrel. China will keep liquidity reasonably ample in financial markets, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Tuesday, a day after the central bank announced a cut to banks’ foreign exchange reserve ratio to support the economy. “I still expect more policy support, but not the flood-like policy deluge the markets have been hoping for, which could leave oil markets adrift over the short term, looking to the U.S. summer driving season and EU sanctions for support,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a note. The Beijing city government expanded its COVID-19 mass testing from one district this week to most of the city of nearly 22 million as the population braced for an imminent lockdown similar to Shanghai’s stringent curbs. On the supply side, analysts said that phasing out of Russian oil from the market would continue to support prices. “I have reservations that potential European energy sanctions on Russian oil and natural gas can be ignored for long,” OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note. That said, a few more negative headlines from Beijing regarding COVID restrictions could shift the balance decisively lower this week, Halley added. Separately, in a bearish signal for oil markets, five analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that U.S. crude inventories had increased by 2.2 million barrels in the week to April 22. Stocks of gasoline rose by about 500,000 barrels last week, and distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have decreased by 600,000 barrels. The poll was conducted ahead of the release of the inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday. The official government Energy Information Administration data will be out on Wednesday. NN: Reality is that China will soon start here engines and the factories will come alive, and the consumers will vacation and fly because millennials just wanna have fun. And Putin will slice and dice the Ukraine because generals wanna have fun. Fuel demand will soar while supplies will drop…. And the arms dealers will be glad to supply both sides because for them war is fun and profitable,,,, So I am sure the party they are having in Ukraine will soon spread…. And then we will have fun too.