BlackMask Breaking News

• On Wednesday, the European Union put forward proposals that could see it trying to ban any tapping of new oil, coal and gas deposits in the Arctic.
• The EU says it wants to protect the region from further disruptive climate change.
• But countries like Russia derive economic wealth from the region’s hydrocarbons and other natural resources.

A new cold front could open up in the political tension between the European Union and Russia over energy. This time in the Arctic. On Wednesday, the EU put forward proposals that could see it pushing to ban the tapping of new oil, coal and gas deposits in the Arctic in an effort, it said, to protect the region from further disruptive climate change. Russia, a major holder of Arctic territory where an abundance of its hydrocarbon and fish stocks are found, is not too pleased with the proposals with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak telling CNBC Thursday that they were politically-motivated and nonsensical.

” I was a bit surprised when I heard about this yesterday. Why the Arctic, why not the Equator? One could come up with a number of places in the world where oil and gas production must be banned,” he said at the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow, according to a translation.

“This proposal has no other motivation than political,” he added. “What do these statements tell us – that we need to stop extracting the entire gas produced at the moment? I think that the authors of these proposals have very little understanding of the real state of affairs,” he said. The EU proposals come at a time when tensions are already high between Russia and the EU when it comes to energy, and specifically natural gas. Prices have been soaring as Europe’s demand is squeezed by tighter-than-expected supplies.

Russia has said it has ramped up gas supplies but critics say it is using its gas exports to the region for political purposes, chiefly its bid to get Germany to certify the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Russia denied it was exploiting Europe’s gas crisis, with President Vladimir Putin insisting t on Wednesday that Moscow was not using gas a weapon.

Tensions in the Arctic have already been growing between regional players for a number of years, particularly in light of Russia’s quiet expansion of its political, economic and military influence there. Unlike Russia, the EU is a comparatively new player in the Arctic and the bloc, per se, is not a member of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, although the Council includes the EU member states Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The EU appears to be looking to increase its role in the region, however, and in a proposal mooted by the European Commission on Wednesday, it noted that “the Arctic region is of major strategic importance for the European Union, with regard to climate change, raw materials as well as geostrategic influence.” It said it would aim to “strengthen EU engagement” in the region through “contributing to maintaining peaceful and constructive dialogue and cooperation in a changing geopolitical landscape, to keep the Arctic safe and stable” as well as “pushing for oil, coal and gas to stay in the ground, including in Arctic regions” and “supporting the inclusive and sustainable development of the Arctic regions to the benefit of its inhabitants and future generations.” The Arctic is an integral part of Russia’s economy and territory, its coastline accounts for 53% of Arctic Ocean coastline and the country’s population in the region totals roughly 2 million people — that’s around half of the people living in the Arctic worldwide, according to the Arctic Institute, a center for circumpolar security studies.

NN: Here is the real deal. Russia is pissed about the ban on Arctic drilling. They have big plans for the Arctic. They are doubly pissed that the newly  completed and tested Nord Stream 2 pipeline has not bean issued a production permit. So here is how it goes. Russia is punishing Europe and slowing gas supplies. Gas has gone from $5.00 to $30/00 casing crude oil prices to triple. Europe will cave in and allow the Nord Stream will supply all the gas Europe needs this winter. That will shoot in the ass demand for crude oil and prices will plunge. Now you understand my oil trade.

 

 

“Crude is now in a full speculative rally and buying frenzy” on the back of coal and gas shortages, said Vandana Hari, the founder of energy consultant Vanda Insights. The usual relief valves on the supply-side such as OPEC+ action or a spurt in shale output have been ruled out for now, with the only check on momentum being the demand response to higher prices, she added.

The energy crisis has contributed to China’s economy weakening in the third quarter, as electricity shortages in September forced factories to curb output or shut completely. The power outages also impacted crude processing last month, with refining rates dropping to the lowest level since May 2020. India’s diesel consumption, meanwhile, is gathering pace with the onset of annual festivals, increasing sales to about pre-virus levels in the first half of October. The battered aviation sector is also poised for a boost, with the U.S. set to open its borders to vaccinated foreigners on Nov. 8. NN: The pressure for OPEC to release more oil will be intense. We are already starting to see demand destruction. Crude is this high in reality because OPEC is holding barrels off the market. This will not last long as they see their arch enemy come back alive… US producers especially shale. They are breathing life back into the US shale producers they sought to destroy. I have seen them make this mistake 5 times. They take prices low to kill off US production. Only to get prices so high that everyone and their dog is making money no matter their production costs…. And the US is about to become energy self sufficient again and a major exporter…. The last thing OPEC wants besides  running Gonorrhea through their harem!!!!

When you think of police officers dying in the line of duty, you probably think of them chasing down a criminal and being shot or getting run over by a getaway car. So far this year, 356 law-enforcement officers across the country have died in what have been classified as line-of-duty deaths. But just 49 of them died by gunfire and 16 by vehicles. These are relatively small numbers compared to the 228 officers who died from COVID-19, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, an online tribute to officers compiled by a nonprofit dedicated to giving the public the chance to “remember the fallen and honor their sacrifices.” But this year, COVID-19 has turned that mission on its head. For is it really a “sacrifice” to die because you turned down a life-saving vaccination against an airborne-spread illness? The memorial page notes that the coronavirus is the No. 1 killer of law-enforcement officers this year. “Getting vaccinated is just as important as wearing your vest and your seat belt,” it says. “Don’t wait any longer, please consult your doctor to see if vaccination is right for you.” And yet, sadly, officers have been hesitant, and it has led to their preventable, premature deaths – and no telling how many other deaths of those they encountered on the job. The chronologically listed deaths of the officers tell the story. In January, a month when COVID-19 vaccinations were just becoming available, 54 law-enforcement officers died in the line of duty, with 38 of those deaths due to COVID. These officers likely died from COVID before they could get the vaccine that would save their lives. Same thing goes with some of the 20 officers who died from COVID in February. But from March to June, the life-saving effects of the vaccine were becoming apparent in the officer mortality rates. For the first time this year, officers were more likely to die for some other reason than a COVID illness during those four months. COVID killed a steady six officers per month, accounting for three out of every 10 officer deaths. Then the more deadly, and easier-spread delta variant of the virus took hold. By July, COVID was the predominant killer of law-enforcement officers again. And in August and September, it became rare for officers to die of anything else but COVID-19. The deadliest month of this year, August, had 64 COVID deaths, compared to 13 from all other causes. September’s COVID deaths were 62 out of the 70 total law-enforcement officer deaths. Where these COVID deaths were happening told another story. The states with the highest death count of COVID-stricken officers this year are Texas (67), Florida (37) and Georgia (30). These are states run by governments that continually classified vaccines as a matter of “personal choice,” rather than a public-health obligation. California, the most populous state, has registered 20 deaths. And New York, with a population slightly less than Florida, had just six. There was an August week when five officers in South Florida died of COVID. That is similar to the yearly officer death tolls in Pennsylvania (4), Illinois (6) and Michigan (4). The City of West Palm Beach lost two officers to COVID during the past couple months. The most recent one, Anthony Testa, was just 36 years old. NN: Now you know why i call them steroid monsters. They are nor concerned about the side effects of the roids that are in abundance at the police gym.

Oct 15 (Reuters) – U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a sixth week in a row as oil prices soared to their highest since 2014, prompting drillers to return to the wellpad. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose 10 to 543 in the week to Oct. 15, its highest since April 2020, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co (BKR.N) said in its closely followed report on Friday. , , That puts the total rig count up 261 rigs, or 93%, over this time last year. U.S. oil rigs rose 12 to 445 this week, their highest since April 2020, while gas rigs fell 1 to 98, their lowest since August. The increase in oil rigs was the biggest weekly build since April 2021. U.S. crude futures rose to their highest since 2014 this week and were currently trading around $82 a barrel on Friday, on forecasts of a supply deficit over the next few months as rocketing gas and coal prices stoke a switch to oil products. With oil prices up about 69% so far this year, some energy firms said they plan to boost spending in 2021 after cutting drilling and completion expenditures in 2019 and 2020. That spending increase, however, remains small as most firms continue to focus on boosting cash flow, reducing debt and increasing shareholder returns rather than adding output. “As oil prices continue to soar upward, producers are expected to slowly wean off their previous policies of strict capital discipline in the wake of COVID, and tepidly increase drilling activity,” analysts at Gelber and Associates said in a report. But it will take time for those rig increases to translate into rising oil output. U.S. oil production is expected to slide from 11.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020 to 11.0 million bpd in 2021 before rising to 11.7 million bpd in 2022, according to government projections. That compares with the all-time annual high of 12.3 million bpd in 2019.  Enverus, which publishes its own rig count data, said drillers added 10 rigs in the week through Oct. 13, with 7 of those in the Permian shale in Texas and New Mexico. Oddly, an even bigger price increase in natural gas – futures were up 115% so far this year – has not yet encouraged drillers to seek more gas. The oil rig count was up about 67% since the start of the year, while the number of active gas rigs was only up about 19%. Analysts said there were a lot of reasons drillers were adding more oil rigs than gas, including that U.S. domestic demand for gas has been declining since hitting a record high in 2019 due coronavirus demand destruction in 2020 and as high prices in 2021 caused power generators to burn more coal. In addition, the United States was already turning all the gas it could into liquefied natural gas for export, so producing more of the fuel would only reduce prices, not meet an increase in demand. NN  This rise in oil prices is not justified. Reality is we have market hysteria. Reality will set in by early next year

OPEC+ is producing less oil than it is supposed to, a survey by Platts has revealed, The oil cartel was supposed to pump a combined 37.141 million barrels in September per its quotas, according to Argus. Yet, according to the Platts survey, the actual total was 570,000 bpd below this number—even if it was higher than the previous month by more than the 400,000 bpd OPEC+ agreed to add to the market every month. In other words, while OPEC+ was overperforming on its monthly production boost, it was underperforming on its own quotas. The September total, per the Argus data, was 6.712 million barrels lower than the baseline production level agreed to by OPEC+.The cartel has made no secret of its intention to go cautiously about production recovery. Its members appear still worried about the demand prospects for oil despite the recent price surge resulting from the gas supply crunch. It was this worry about demand that made OPEC+ stick to its original output recovery scheme of adding 400,000 bpd to monthly production until combined output rises by 5.8 million bpd. That would still mean a lower output than before the pandemic—OPEC+ slashed 7.7 million bpd from its production to counter the pandemic—and could keep prices higher for longer. In other words, OPEC+ is still prioritizing its own well-being despite calls for adding more barrels to curb a price rise that saw Brent crude top $80 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate pass this threshold for the first time in more than five years. The most notable call to OPEC to pump more came from Washington earlier this year, not once but twice. Now, Reuters reports, the White House remains eager to have OPEC “do more” to help global economic recovery, according to an unnamed official. The official said Washington was “using every tool at our disposal to address anti-competitive practices in U.S. and global energy markets to ensure reliable and stable energy markets.” NN: we shall see. I believe OPEC has overplayed its hand. And soon their will be a scramble by OPEC members for market share. I have never seen a OPEC price manipulation last… And it always crashes from the peek. The only real question for you and i is where is the peek

This week my brother Martin passed by his own hand. Often times people keep family tragedies quiet. That is not how i do things. In many ways Martin shaped my life. Seeing him drink to excess and getting high scared me. To the point i have never taken drugs and have never drank much. I am good for a ounce of Macallan or 1 glass of wine.

He was constantly getting into trouble to fuel his addiction. Unfortunately the family was their to  bail him out. Maybe tough love early on would have worked. Because rehab certainly did nothing. You have got to want to help yourself

I would spend my nights in the library. Working day and night  analyzing markets and trading my passion. Martin spent his days drinking and getting stoned and his nights in the disco. I always worked… Martin never worked.

I gave up on him decades ago. So did the family. In recent years he ran out of bridges to burn and the alachol and drugs took their toll on his brain.

The last straw for him was stage 3 throat cancer.

Society should realize that drug addiction and drug abuse is a medical condition.

Treating addicts and alcoholics is in societies interest as versus jailing them.

I think all of us has gone through this with someone we have known or cared about.

Even though we all new this day would come its still not easy.

I hereby rededicate my life to doing good and in some small way try to make a difference,,

To the Martins of this world!