BlackMask Breaking News

Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending August 16, 2024

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 4.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 426.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 5% below the five year average for this time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day during the week ending August 16, 2024, which was 222 thousand barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 92.3% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.9 million barrels per day. U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week, increased by 366 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.5 million barrels per day, 4.8% less than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 531 thousand barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 63 thousand barrels per day. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels from last week and are about 3% below the five year  average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending components inventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 3.3 million barrels last week and are
about 10% below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 2.0 million barrels from last week and are 14% above the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 5.9 million barrels last week. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels a day, down
by 2.3% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.1 million barrels a day, up by 1.5% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 5.0%
from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 3.2% compared with the same
four-week period last year

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the Middle East late on Tuesday having failed to secure a deal to halt fighting between Hamas and Israel, highlighting how the two sides remained sharply divided despite US officials’ insistence that an agreement was close. After a day spent meeting Egyptian and Qatari officials, Blinken reiterated that Israel had agreed to what the top US diplomat called a “bridging” agreement that would create space for the two sides to hammer out the details of a ceasefire introduced by President Joe Biden in May. Now it was Hamas’s turn, he said. “Time is of the essence,” Blinken told reporters on the airport tarmac in Doha, minutes before beginning the trip home to the US. “Israel has now accepted that proposal — I heard that directly from Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday — and we hope and expect Hamas will do the same.” It was Blinken’s ninth trip to the region since the conflict began with Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, and the result was just the same: Israel and Hamas were unable to set aside their disagreements to halt the fighting. Stymied in the push for an enduring ceasefire, Blinken had come to the region this week with a more modest proposal aimed at building common ground and easing the violence.

He said Israel must preserve its “strategic security assets,” mentioning its seizure of the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt earlier in the war. That comment drew a rebuke from a senior State Department official, who told reporters travelling with Blinken that “maximalist” statements from the Israeli leader weren’t constructive.

Looming in the background is the threat of an attack from Iran, which has sworn to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month. Israel has declined to take responsibility for the attack.

Iran said its response to the alleged Israeli killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran could take a long time, signalling that the Islamic Republic would not rush the expected retaliation that had raised fears of a regional war in the Middle East. “Time is on our side and it’s possible that the waiting period for this response will be long,” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naeini was cited as saying by Iranian state TV.

NN BlackMask Pod Cast:

long live the king

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the relatives of those Hamas holds in captivity that he is not yet certain a new agreement on a ceasefire with the organization will come to a realization, the Walla news agency reported on Tuesday. Netanyahu allegedly said he is “not sure there will be a deal” but insisted that if there is one, it will be in accordance with “Israel’s strategic assets.” The report came after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the Middle Eastern country agreed to the latest proposal of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange with Hamas. Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated it retrieved the bodies of six deceased hostages previously held by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that its forces performed “precise airstrikes” on Tuesday against Hamas members who were allegedly using the infrastructure of the Mustafa Khaft School in Gaza City to hide. According to the army, there was a command and control center from where the gunmen executed attacks against IDF troops and Israeli areas. The army guaranteed to be taking “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.” Despite US assurances yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted the ceasefire proposal and blamed solely Hamas, the leader vowed that Israel will not stop with the goal of freeing more hostages and the latest update of the daily death toll in Gaza showed a continued rise.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the latest “bridging” proposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” Blinken underlined during a press conference, adding that after that, the mediators have to “come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they will implement the commitments they made in this agreement.” He reaffirmed that Washington is “deeply committed” to getting the job done as quickly as possible.

Netanyahu: Ceasefire deal in first stage

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Monday that the process of reaching an agreement on a new ceasefire and prisoner exchange between his country and Hamas is “already in the first stage.” Speaking in a video released on social media as United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a press conference and announced that Israel accepted the latest version of a deal proposed by the mediators, Netanyahu first thanked Washington for the “understanding” it “has shown to our vital security interests, in the course of our joint efforts to bring about the release of our hostages.”During the conference, Blinken explained that the agreed ceasefire will “proceed in phases” that will last six weeks. NN: Hamas has not agreed to this deal…… It will never make it to the final stages.

 

After a three-hour meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu puts out a statement publicly backing the latest US bridging proposal that was presented to Israel and conveyed to Hamas at the end of the summit in Doha last week. “The Prime Minister reiterated Israel’s commitment to the current American proposal on the release of our hostages, which takes into account Israel’s security needs, which he strongly insists on,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement issued in Hebrew and English.

Hamas rejected the US formula last night.

In its readout of the Netanyahu-Blinken meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office goes out of its way to stress that the meeting was “positive” and was held in a “good atmosphere.”

On Saturday, Israel had cautiously welcomed the new US “bridging proposal,” designed to facilitate and expedite a hostage-ceasefire deal, which was conveyed to Israel and to Hamas on Friday at the end of two days of talks between Israel and the mediators in Doha. The PMO put out a statement at the time that the proposal “contains components that are acceptable to Israel.” Netanyahu has been demanding that any hostage-truce deal provide for an ongoing IDF presence along the Egypt-Gaza border and include a mechanism to prevent a return of armed Hamas gunmen to northern Gaza. He has also insisted that Israel retain the right to resume the battle against Hamas in order to achieve both the war’s declared aims — the release of all hostages and the destruction of Hamas. And he has denied that Israel’s May deal proposal, on which subsequent negotiations have been based, entails a permanent ceasefire, even though the published text indicates that it does. It is not clear how the US “bridging proposal,” which has not been published, seeks to resolve these issues. Blinken is scheduled to meet Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv shortly after 4 p.m.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on the urgency of reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during his ninth visit to the Middle East since the start of the conflict. “This is a decisive moment, probably the best and maybe the last opportunity to get hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken added during a speech in Tel Aviv on Monday alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Following the Doha summit and subsequent discussions in Cairo, Hamas rejected the latest proposal presented by mediators by citing “new conditions regarding the prisoner exchange process and withdraws from previous clauses in a way that does not allow reaching an agreement.” Blinken will continue his trip by traveling to Cairo on Tuesday, where talks on a ceasefire will resume in the upcoming days.

Israel-Hamas Truce Talks Stall as Blinken Tries to Clinch Deal

Israel and Hamas blamed each other for stalling a cease-fire and hostage deal as US President Joe Biden’s top diplomat arrived in Tel Aviv to press for an agreement. Mediators say the warring sides are getting closer to a pause in the conflict in Gaza that’s been raging for more than 10 months and has roiled the wider Middle East. But objections from both parties on Sunday raised the prospect of another diplomatic failure. “We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. “There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish between the two very well.” He accused Hamas — backed by Iran and designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union — of being “completely obstinate.” International pressure should, he said, be directed at the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in Gaza.

Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Dr. Ahmad Abdulhadi, told Sky News that there have been “no improvements” towards a ceasefire agreement with Israel despite United States President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing optimism over the latest round of talks. “The Biden administration is trying to show that the environment is positive. But the first round showed there are no improvements,” Abdulhadi stated. “The mediators told us that the disagreed points haven’t been solved and Netanyahu added more conditions on it and made it even more complicated,” he added. Earlier, Biden claimed an agreement is “in sight” amid talks in Cairo between Israel and mediators from the United States, Qatar, Egypt, while Netanyahu stated his country’s negotiators showed “cautious optimism” about reaching an agreement. On the other hand, Hamas, which refused to send a delegation to the talks, urged mediators to pressure Israel to accept the US ceasefire proposal.

Israel cautiously optimistic about Gaza ceasefire after talks

Israeli negotiators have shown “cautious optimism” about reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after recent talks in Doha, Qatar, according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. According to Israel, the optimism stems from a new American proposal and the pressure exerted on Hamas by the US and mediators. The statement further noted that negotiators believe this pressure might overcome Hamas’s resistance to the proposal, possibly leading to a breakthrough in the discussions. Hamas, however, refused to send a delegation to the latest round of talks, which began on Thursday.

NN Audio File: 

bidens wet dream