Author: BlackMask Financial

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Japan Restarts Nuclear Power Plants To Slash Emissions and save a bundle in soaring natrual gas

Japan is set to fire up its nuclear power plants as it looks to expand its renewable energy offering amid a push to slash its emissions, its new industry minister has said today.The efforts are a bid to cut 46 per cent of its carbon output from 2013 levels by 2030, while the country has also pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050. NN: this is just spin for the greeneewenniees…… Its the fact that they can generate electricity at 0.03 cents a killowatt hour verses 0,30 cetns a killowatt hour at the current LNG prices…. And they will never run out… “I would like to promote the maximum adoption of renewable energy, thorough energy conservation and the restart of nuclear power plants with the highest priority on safety,” newly appointed economy, trade and industry minister, Koichi Hagiuda, told his first news conference. It comes amid a cabinet shuffle in Japan, as its government makes way for new prime minister Fumio Kishida. The minister, formerly Japan’s education secretary, has kept up the Kishida administration’s climate promises. Hagiuda also said his department aims to win cabinet approval of a new energy plan before the end of the month – ahead of the UN’s flagship climate conference on November 1. Though the move to restart its nuclear power industry comes after the country’s decision in April to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. The decision received widespread criticism, with neighbouring China labelling it “extremely irresponsible”. Just last week the UK set out its own plan of action to bring more nuclear fusion power to the country, in a bid to help decarbonise the energy sector. The UK is looking to muscling in on a leadership position in the development of fusion energy globally, as the power does not have to rely on wind levels to produce vast amounts of energy in a relatively ‘clean’ way.

“Fusion could be the ultimate clean power solution, representing a low carbon, safe, abundant and continuous and effectively unlimited source of energy,”

the paper, issued by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said in its report. NN: windmill technology is a thousand years old invented in the 12 centuray to grind we wheat… long since abondened… its a spin on old shit. Wind turbines started being made as far back as 1887, and were used to pump water In 1941 the first megawatt-class wind turbine was created in United States, and decade later UK started powering  part of their power grid with wind turbines. Reality is they never worked. The revitalization came after GE got massive government subsidies for their windmills… Their is a good reason the world abandoned the wind mill. Wind does not blow all the time. And when the wind blows to hard like it always does from time to time the shit breaks. You want to talk about a game changer,,, Its not the electric car 100 year old FAILED  technology…. Its fusion, cheap nearly free energy, non polluting, safe and renewable. And that day will come… And the world will never be the same……OPEC has fucked themselves really good this time. Everyday oil is abondened. They defeated nuclear and coal and even solar with $10 to $30 oil… At $80 oil everything is back on the table………

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China ban non-Communist news media outlets

In a further blow to the country’s freedom of expression, the Chinese government is proposing new regulations that would prohibit news reporting by sources that are not directly financed by the Communist Party. The restrictions would strengthen the Chinese government’s control over news and information.

Also read | China worst abuser of internet freedom, Iceland with the most internet freedom, says report

According to a paper filed with China’s National Development and Reform Council on Friday, private cash cannot be used to support news collecting, broadcasting, and distribution, including social media.  It said that privately financed groups “must not engage in the business of news collecting, editing, or broadcasting.”It would also prohibit news organisations from duplicating news information produced by foreign media organisations. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, and the financial news site Caixin, which is funded by Tencent, might be affected. The website of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) is’soliciting public opinion’ on adding private sector involvement in media organisations to a list of prohibited ventures, according to Radio Free Asia. NN: Stalin said ideas are more dangerous then guns. We do not let them have guns and we are for sure not going to let them have ideas. Ideas come from the uncensored free press. Fake news, hate speech, political speak and ALL the writings of the honest, dishonest,  hateful, confused and the brilliant among us. No free press, no ideas… no ideas =  no freedom. China is the gravest threat the world faces.. Want proof look at the plague they engineered and launched on mankind… Mark my words here this is just the start. And for most of us the information mined from the free press has kept most of us alive.

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France Bets On Nuclear, Hydrogen For Zero-Emission Power

France aims to become a leader in green hydrogen production and reinvent nuclear power by building a small modular reactor by 2030 as part of a wider $34.6 billion (30 billion euro) plan to decarbonize industry and slash emissions, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.   France currently gets around 70 percent of its total electricity from nuclear power generation and is a major exporter of electricity, including to the UK. By the end of this decade, France will look to be a leader in green hydrogen production as it plans to build two massive factories for producing green hydrogen, Macron said. France’s nuclear power generation will be essential in producing green hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced from zero-emission electrolysis. According to Macron, Europe’s renewable energy capacity will never be enough to produce enough green hydrogen for mobility, so France’s nuclear power generation will be a key enabler for green hydrogen. France will invest the 30 billion euro to boost industry in line with pledges to cut emissions, according to the France2030 plan that Macron unveiled today. France’s bet on nuclear power—unlike Germany’s decision to phase out all nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster—has been vindicated in recent weeks as Europe’s natural gas and power prices hit record highs. The gas and electricity crisis clashed with the net-zero pledges of the European Union and the United Kingdom as some utilities were forced to fire up mothballed coal plants as natural gas prices surged. France also led a group of EU member states, including Finland and several central and eastern European countries, who pushed earlier this week for including nuclear energy in the upcoming green investment rules of the European Union.

“To win the climate battle, we need nuclear power,” say the EU member states led by France. NB: So says France that generates 65% of its electricty by Nuclear….

NN: As you can see the technology is not settled business. The solution varies by country and the installed energy base that has taken 50 yearsto build and trillions in investment. For example in Ameria where their is an abundance of sun solar makes sense. BUT their is the antiquated distribution system and storage problem.  So that means grid and off grid (at the home solar systems) batteries. And of course readily available natural gas which already has installed distribution and storage should be used as a bridge fuel for transportation and electric generation until the infrastructure is set up for electric cars and we get a better battery. In England they have an abundance of wind most of the time and little sun shine. For them wind is doable using natural gas as a backup and transitional energy source is a no brainier. They have the installed natural gas distribution and storage systems, They have in abundance of gas if they would open up the north seal again and allow fracking. This is a bridge bride and back up till they get enough wind farms built. Strore natrual gas as a backup.  France and Japan are very interesting. Wind is not viable in France and neither is solar….. Its the long cloudy winters. Japan does not have the space for solar and not enough wind. Both countries have limited fossil fuels. They both have the worlds largest installed nuclear infrastructure to the tune of trillions of dollars. For them Nuclear is their only choice and since they have an abundance of cheap electricity the hydrogen gas  powered internal combustion engine car and or hydrogen fuel cell car is viable The hydrogen made by electrolysis by their installed grid producing really cheap electricity. And their storage needs are diffident just stock pile uranium. As you can see one size fits all is not going to work. And reality has a way of shattering dreams based on stupidness instead of science and economics. i was advocating solar and natural gas ever since i was a puppy.

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EU may consider deal on Merck’s COVID pill after approval procedure begins

Oct 12 (Reuters) – The European Union may consider signing a supply deal with U.S. drugmaker Merck for its experimental COVID-19 pill, but only after the company starts the process of seeking approval for the drug in the bloc, a senior EU official said on Tuesday. The oral antiviral treatment molnupiravir has been developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. On Monday Merck applied for emergency use authorisation in the United States, which has already secured 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir at a price of $700 per course. The EU would consider a joint procurement of molnupiravir, “if Merck engages with EMA”, the EU official told Reuters, referring to the European Medicines Agency. Throughout the pandemic, the EU has signed advance purchase deals for experimental vaccines and drugs against the new virus before companies applied to EMA, but the official said that approach had now changed because the 27-nation bloc has entered a new phase in the health emergency. With about 75% of its adult population vaccinated, the EU is now signing advance deals only when drugs have at least begun a so-called rolling review with EMA, the official said. Under this procedure, the EU regulator assesses data as soon as they become available, instead of waiting for a formal application when all required information has been gathered. A spokesman for the EU Commission did not comment on whether the start of a rolling review was a precondition to have an advance deal with a drugmaker. He repeated that, in theory, to launch a joint procurement, at least four EU governments and the European Commission would need to support it. Last week, EMA said it would consider in the coming days whether to start a rolling review for molnupiravir. On Tuesday it told Reuters the rolling review had not yet begun. The EU official said talks with Merck had not yet started, and that the number of treatments the EU could secure would depend on several conditions, including pricing. Under its advance purchase deals, the EU reserves a number of doses of a treatment or vaccine. EU states that decide to be part of the contract can buy their share of the reserved doses once the medicine has been authorized by the EMA or by a national regulator. NN: these early treatments need to be done in the first week of infections. Like  Ivermectin. or Monoclonal antibodies The only way you can know early on if your infected is to constantly test…..

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Harvard Immunologist Champions At-Home Covid Test Kits

 

The idea is that when used widely and frequently, the detectors, similar to a home pregnancy test, could stop outbreaks before they begin. Such countries as Germany and the U.K. have invested heavily in the tests, making them available cheaply, or even free. Others, including the U.S., have stuck with a more sensitive laboratory test that often must be administered by trained personnel and can take days to return results, depending on the lab’s processing capacity. “I’ve just been banging the drum about this really simple tool that frankly, could have prevented the outbreaks of last winter,” says Mina. “It could have—especially when we had no vaccines—saved hundreds of thousands of lives.” Rapid testing may finally be having its moment. Even in countries with plenty of vaccine supply, policymakers are coming to the realization that shots alone might not be enough to stop the virus, especially its more infectious delta variant. President Joe Biden said on Sept. 9 that he would spend $2 billion on 280 million rapid tests, and his administration announced an additional $1 billion purchase this month—part of a group of measures that officials say should quadruple the number available for home use by December. It’s not enough, but it’s a start, Mina says. Mina likes to compare the rapid technology to fire engines at a burning building, while the laboratory test is emergency responders arriving to a building after it’s burned down to embers. In other words, the rapid tests are good enough to catch what they need to, picking up the people who are likely more infectious. Modeling he’s done shows that twice-weekly rapid testing is effective at stopping significant viral spread, even if only half the people do it, and some mess up the test or it simply fails.So while rapid tests may not be perfect, they can play an important role in helping businesses—and by extension, entire economies—chart a path back to normalcy. In one of the first randomized clinical trials, same-day screenings paired with N95 face mask.  NN: We are at the end of the line in test kits. Maybe we will have them for the next 2 weeks. We are at the end of the line. Now is the time to stock up. Testing is your last line of defense for you and your loved ones. The antivirals you are hearing about ONLY work in the first few days of infections…. We test everyday here. At the least you should test twice a week…

Order your test kits here

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EU to buy emergency gas reserves from Russia

The EU could buy emergency gas supplies from Russia in a bid to drive down rocketing energy prices, The Daily Telegraph reported citing its own sources.The common purchase of gas reserves would be similar to the bloc’s joint procurement strategy for buying coronavirus vaccines.  The European Commission negotiated for jabs on behalf of EU member states, which were thought to get a better price by negotiating as a bloc of 450 million consumers than they could individually. EU sources said the idea the EU could buy emergency gas reserves from Russia was among several being looked at.

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Saudi Arabia To Ship Extra Crude Oil To Asia In November

The world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, will ship additional volumes of crude to at least three refiners in Asia in November, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Aramco will also deliver the full volumes under the contracts to four other Asian refiners, Reuters’ sources say. Some of the Asian buyers asked for full or incremental supply on top of the contractual volumes because of attractive prices for November, the sources added.  Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia cut its official selling prices (OSPs) for its key Asian market for November. This was a second cut for Saudi prices in two consecutive months, after the price rise spurred by the OPEC+ decision to stick to monthly additions of 400,000 bpd in total rather than boosting output more to cap international prices. The Saudi cut amid tight OPEC+ supply signaled that the world’s top oil exporter was keen to keep its prices on the Asian market competitive. In the summer, when Saudi Aramco was raising the price of its crude to its most important market, Asian refiners started turning to cheaper spot supply of cargoes from the Americas. Another Middle Eastern oil exporter and an OPEC member, Kuwait, is also set to ship additional volumes on top of the contractual supply, sources told Reuters. Last week, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser said at the Energy Intelligence Forum that the natural gas crunch had increased global oil demand by 500,000 bpd. Some utilities in Asia are switching from gas to oil, as Asia has more flexibility in burning oil at power plants than Europe, where steep carbon regulations limit European utilities from burning oil, Rystad Energy at the end of September. “If the gap between LNG and oil prices remains wide, Asia is set to boost oil demand by 400,000 barrels per day on average over the next two quarters,” Rystad Energy said in a report. NN: Goldman is predicting $90 Brent. The average differential is $4.00 between Brent and New York crude bases March. If we take Goldman’s estimate that spot crude will hit $90 bases Brent. that takes us to $86 March CRUDE NY.  Assuming the differentials stay the same. Our trade envisions a market we can sell all the way to $92 bases March.  That is very close to $100 Brent spot come December when i expect the market to peek. And i expect the backwardsataion which is now $3 to shrink. In fact come March i expect the cotango to return as the world get flooded by supplies and winter over cutting demand drastically… When everyone is buying i got to sell Sell SELL… I just can’t help myself.

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Nigeria Looks To Boost Oil Production By 310% To 4 Million Bpd

Nigeria, the largest oil producer and exporter in Africa, hopes that its newly adopted petroleum industry law will help it hike its oil production by 310 percent to 4 million barrels per day (bpd), Nigerian Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva said this week. Nigeria currently produces just below 1.3 million bpd, as per OPEC’s latest official data. The African OPEC member is one of the OPEC producers that have struggled in recent months to pump as much oil as their quota under the OPEC+ deal allows, due to force majeure circumstances at pipelines carrying crude to export terminals.

The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which became law in August, will help Nigeria achieve its target to pump 4 million bpd, minister Sylva said at an energy conference, as carried by local outlet Premium Times.

The new law will also allow the country to increase its crude oil reserves from 37 billion barrels to 40 billion barrels, and to extract more gas, which it sees as a key fuel in the energy transition, the minister added. “First is the Focus on Gas. For us, this is at the heart of the energy transition and represents the first step in the journey to renewables away from oil. Already, we have declared that gas is our transition fuel, and also represents a destination fuel, as we envisage that it will be part of our energy mix by 2050, given the vast resources that can be commercialized and utilized,” Sylva said. In the middle of August, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari signed the country’s newly passed petroleum bill into law, marking the end of 20 years of efforts at Africa’s top oil producer to overhaul its oil industry. The new petroleum act aims to attract more foreign capital to the country’s oil sector, Nigeria says. The bill took two decades to be finalized, and hopes to overhaul the way Nigeria will share its oil resources with international oil companies as the country looks to attract new in;vestment in oil and gas. NN  Their is no shortage of fossil fuel. OPEC is at it again. Their is a shortage of smart people in power. The grenniewinnnesss made a play to force their green agenda. And they missed the mark. You can have a tantrum stamp your feet but reality is it aint’ gonna happen. The world needs fossil fuels… It took 50 years to electrify America. The internal combustion engine took 100 years to refine  the design and install production infrastructure (repair shops, refineries and gasoline stations) to  become the standard for transportation. It will take 50 years for the EV to be the transportation standard if ever. And its not decided who the winner will be. You have fuel cells and hydrogen still in the race. To changes how the world heats and generates electricity you are looking at 75 years. Most of the world still heats by combustion. Even the heat pump requires electricity generated by mostly coal.  Sure we will get their…. But the way we will go to renewable energy still needs a few more breakthroughs. In the meantime the most abundant  fuel after coal is natural gas. As far as the price of oil… this is a bubble… In fact its more like a blip on the radar screen. I have seen 5 times now oil price collapsing once it goes over $70 a barrel. AS WE SPEAK THE DRILLED HOLES THAT WERE SHUT DOWN OR NEVER PUT IN PRODUCTION ARE ALIVE AGAIN!! And OPEC’S MARKET MANIPULATION WILL FAIL AS IT ALWAYS DOES.

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China eyes coal output boost, higher power prices to ease shortages

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China has ordered its two top coal regions to boost output and will allow coal-fired power utilities to charge customers higher prices as the country battles its worst power crunch in years. Inner Mongolia and Shanxi told coal miners to lift combined annual production capacity by more than 160 million tonnes, while China’s cabinet said market coal-fired power prices may now fluctuate up to 20% from base rates, an increase on previous limits, or more for high energy consuming sectors. The pricing adjustment is designed to prevent high energy consumption, state media reported, adding that prices for residential and agricultural users, as well as public welfare initiatives, would be kept stable. Near-record high thermal coal prices and electricity shortages that have prompted power rationing across China have dented the country’s industrial output and threaten its economic growth. Shanxi, China’s biggest coal-producing region, ordered its 98 coal mines to raise annual output capacity by 55.3 million tonnes over the remainder of the year, an official from the provincial government confirmed on Friday in a document reviewed by Reuters. Shanxi will also allow some 51 coal mines that had hit their maximum annual production levels to keep producing in the fourth quarter and to raise capacity by 8 million tonnes, which is expected to add 20.65 million tonnes of extra supply. In China’s No. 2 coal region, Inner Mongolia, an urgent notice dated Oct. 7 from the region’s energy department asked local authorities to notify 72 mines that they may operate at stipulated higher capacities immediately, provided they ensure safe production. A department official declined to say how long the production boost would last. The notice followed a meeting where regional authorities mapped out measures for winter energy supply in response to mandates from China’s cabinet, known as the State Council, the Inner Mongolia Daily reported on Friday. “The (government’s) coal task force shall urge miners to raise output with no compromise, while the power task team shall have the generating firms guarantee meeting the winter electricity and heating demand,” the newspaper said. “This demonstrates the government is serious about raising local coal production to ease the shortage,” said a Beijing-based trader, who estimated the production boost may take two to three months to materialise. The 72 mines in Inner Mongolia, most of which are open pits, previously had authorised annual capacity of 178.45 million tonnes. The notice proposed they increase that by 98.35 million tonnes, Reuters calculations showed. “It will help alleviate the coal shortage but cannot eliminate the issue,” said Lara Dong, senior director with IHS Markit. “The government will still need to apply power rationing to ensure the balancing of the coal and power markets over the winter.” China’s Zhengzhou thermal coal futures were trading up 2.2% at around 1,333 yuan ($207) a tonne as of 1347 GMT in Friday’s night session, not far off a record high of 1,408 yuan struck at the end of last month. Prices of other power-generating commodities have also surged, including fuel oil, methanol and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). All of which have gained at least 10% from a month ago as power generators scramble for fuel. Inner Mongolia churned out just over 1 billion tonnes in 2020 accounting for more than a quarter of the national total, official data shows. However, that output was down 8% in 2020 and fell each month from April through July this year, partly due to an anti-corruption probe initiated last year by Beijing targeting the coal sector, which led to lower production as miners were banned from producing above approved capacity. Neighbouring Shanxi province had to close 27 coal mines this week due to flooding. Coal inventories at major Chinese ports were at 52.34 million tonnes in late September before a week-long national holiday that started Oct 1, down 18% from a year earlier, data compiled by China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association showed. To ensure power and heating supply to residential users, China has reopened dozens of other mines and approved several new ones The government has also called for “appropriately” raising coal imports to levels on par with last year, analysts said, after imports fell nearly 10% in the first eight months. It has even released Australian coal from bonded storage despite a nearly year-long unofficial import ban, and utilities have tapped rare supply sources such as Kazakhstan and the United States. Meanwhile, coal consumption is climbing in northeastern China as the winter heating season has arrived, with major power plants holding average stockpiles of around 10 days’ use, down from more than 20 days last year Citi predicted that the squeeze would persist, forcing China to require a 12% cut in industrial power use in the fourth quarter – more in the event of a cold winter. “This would increase stagflation risks and growth pressures on the Chinese and global economy over the coming winter,” Citi analysts wrote in a note. Despite the announced output increase from Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, not much is expected to be added in time for this winter, analysts and traders said. Analysts from Guosheng Securities expect China’s thermal coal shortage to top 116 million tonnes in 2021, despite some 31 million tonnes in newly approved capacity gradually coming on line from the fourth quarter. “More (announcements to boost coal output) will be needed and we expect it to come,” said James Stevenson, coal analyst from consultancy IHS Markit, adding that China has used all its main tools to push domestic supply and manage demand. Benchmark spot thermal coal prices in the northern port of Qinhuangdao hit a record high of 1,079 yuan a tonne in late September. As coal prices rise, more power plants are seeing their balance sheets fall into the red and even face shutting down.

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US Jobs Report a big MISS only 194,000 jobs expectations were for 500,000 plus

Employers added only 194,000 jobs in September, most of those were government jobs. well below expectations and the second weak month in a row, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 4.8% from its prior 5.2%. The number was well below expectations of around 500,000 jobs and follows the paltry 235,000 jobs added in August. While private employers added 317,000 jobs in the month, government employment fell by 123,000. While nearly 11 million jobs are currently open, businesses report considerable difficulty filling them. The economy has recovered more than 18 million of the 22 million jobs lost last year from the coronavirus pandemic. But the recovery in jobs has been uneven, with women and minorities and those with less than a college degree lagging others. Changes in the country’s demographics, along with technological advancements and restrictive immigration policies have all combined to make this the tightest labor market in decades. The weak number for September will complicate matters for the Federal Reserve Board as it seeks to withdraw its monetary support from the economy. Analysts believe the central bank will soon begin curbing its $120-billion-per-month purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities which have kept interest rates subdued. But that is contingent on continued improvement in the labor market. “It is unsettling to see that the September jobs numbers failed to meet expectations, as people were optimistic that fall reopenings would usher in a return to economic normalcy,” says Steve Rick, chief economist at CUNA Mutual Group. “Unfortunately, this is not completely surprising after the highly disappointing August report and persistent uncertainty around COVID variants.” NN: Its the covid19. Not lockdowns…. worse Its shutdowns. The powers that be are scared about the masses in open revolt over lockdowns and vaccines. So a decision has been made. Set the captives free and let then have their mass spreader events. If their is going to be isolation and vaccine mandates let the private sector do it. In essence they will let the plague decide who will live and who will die. I wonder how many of you realize infections, hospitalizations and deaths are at record highs….. The reason business cannot find workers is many of them have died, are sick or rightly so to scared to chance a job…. The report explains what is going on… It shows few jobs created. Their are not enough willing workers and vast numbers of people  are opting not to risk going to work. And this hell will not be over until 80% of the population has their third shot and the kiddies get jabbed…