Russian hydrocarbon (Oil and Gas and Coal) Industry: News #4

After the Sokhranivka entry point for Russian gas transit via Ukraine was closed, Gazprom had to divert all the gas it can send to the Sudzha entry point.

Russian gas deliveries to Europe have fallen off a cliff since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but some European customers in central Europe – including Slovakia and Austria – continue to receive Russian gas via the route through Ukraine and a pipeline via Turkey.

Due to concerns about the flows of Russian gas to its few remaining customers in Europe, the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, has surged to its highest level since December 2023...


On Thursday, gas transit at Sudzha for delivery west to Europe continued.

    “Gazprom is supplying Russian gas for transit through the territory of Ukraine in the volume confirmed by the Ukrainian side through the Sudzha gas metering station – 37.3 million cubic meters(1.3 billion cubic feet) as of Aug. 8,” Gazprom representative Sergei Kupriyanov said, as carried by Russian news agency Interfax.

Data from European information platform ENTSOG also shows that the flow of natural gas leaving Ukraine for the EU remains uninterrupted.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/gazprom-exports-europe-ukraine-continue-despite-fighting

So these suckers get to pay more for Russian LNG sold at spot prices. Neat.

I like this comment there.

GHIST8:
The reason why the reports are unconfirmed is that the ukies don't control Sudzha station. Nor are they trying to. The ukies that are in Kursk have more pressing issues like how to they are going to spend their last few hours before they are killed.

If the ukies want to stop the flow gas to the EU they can do it in Ukraine they don't need to go on a suicide mission into Kursk to do that. If they shut the gas off and the countries affected will cut the electricity to ukraine and then it's total darkness.

This operation is one of Budanovs cunning James Bond plans that always turns to ****. The plan was to take the Kursk nuclear power plant.

Excellent analysis. These are the first para and the charts. Bear in mind that it is from last October.

Despite the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine that began in February 2022, Russian gas transit to Europe through Ukraine continues to this day at a rate of 35–40 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d). Although the volumes have been reduced to around a third of their pre-war levels, the mere existence of these transit flows during the war defies expectations, especially in light of the sharp curtailment of Russian gas deliveries to Europe across the board—and the complete halt of shipments through the Nord Stream and Yamal corridors since 2022. In this Q&A, the author discusses why these transit flows through Ukraine remain at considerable risk and how the countries that continue to rely on these shipments have varying degrees of ability to adjust to a disruption.







https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/qa-russian-gas-transit-through-ukraine/

Hungary and Croatia can get gas via TurkStream and Balkan Stream.
https://www.wgi.world/serbia-and-the-balkan-stream/

lancelot wrote:Hungary and Croatia can get gas via TurkStream and Balkan Stream.
https://www.wgi.world/serbia-and-the-balkan-stream/

Very, very limited spare capacity over current contracted volumes. Hungary already mainly supplied by this route.

So definitely not the US No sign of an Interpol warrant so its PR

Germany has issued an arrest warrant for Ukrainian diving instructor Vladimir Z., suspected of involvement in the Nord Stream bombings.

This was reported by Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and ARD, which conducted a joint investigation.

A total of three Ukrainian instructors are suspected of having attached explosives to Russian gas pipelines, according to investigators. All three have already left Germany.

There were a total of six people on the yacht where the bombing team was believed to be located: five men and one woman.

Vladimir lives in Poland. He denies any involvement. Warsaw "took no action" after the warrant was issued in June, and now the case has become a "political issue" because in Poland "building a pipeline was considered a sin" and "a suspect in sabotage would be a hero." - ISZ reports

Meanwhile in the real world

Mortymer
@mortymer001
Funny coverup.

Here is the real deal investigation:

https://nordstreambymortymer.blogspot.com

Russia May Strengthen Its Position in the Oil Sector Thanks to Venezuela, by Vladimir Dobrynin, journalist, for VZGLYAD. 08.18.2024.

It is not only economically but also geopolitically advantageous for Russia to seek control over part of the Venezuelan oil industry. The Bolivarian Republic is an unsinkable aircraft carrier near the USA.

The situation in Venezuela is tense. The opposition continues to disagree with the decision of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to recognize the current president of the country, Nicolas Maduro, as the winner of the popular vote.

Nicolas Maduro himself pays no attention to this, preferring to respond to talk with action.

In his speech to the nation last Tuesday, the elected president of the Bolivarian Republic said that the government is considering measures to nullify threats to the country from the West. Without going into detail about the full list, Maduro singled out one of them in particular. The president said that "the option of expropriating US oil projects in the country and transferring them to allied countries such as China, Russia, India or Brazil is already being studied." According to the Western press, these actions could also be extended "to all allies of the United States that also support the opposition, such as, for example, EU countries."

"These people from the north and their accomplices in the world, supporting the opposition and trying to put pressure on us, are making the mistake of their lives. But they will probably understand this only when those oil and gas fields, the contracts for the development of which have already been signed with them, go to our BRICS allies," the Venezuelan leader said.

We must give credit to Nicolas Maduro - he has firmly learned what the proper manner of behavior in relations with the Western world should be: international law is nothing, rules are everything. And the rules say: you must act as you see fit, and not pay attention to what is written in some treaties.

It is no secret that Venezuela has been experiencing enormous economic problems in recent years – hyperinflation, high unemployment, pressure from the West, and especially the US – with the aim of disrupting political stability and installing a pro-Western politician (previously Juan Guaido, now Edmundo Gonzalez) in the presidential chair. The US has practically blocked the work of Venezuela’s main oil company – PDVSA.

PDVSA began its operations in 1976 after Caracas had announced the nationalization of the oil industry a year earlier. Subsequently, it allowed foreign capital to enter its authorized capital, the share of which reached 49%. According to various sources, it owns from 20% to 24% of the world's proven oil reserves.

In October 2016, the Venezuelan government pledged 50.1% of Citgo (PDVSA’s largest subsidiary, headquartered in Texas) to PDVSA bondholders as collateral for a $3.367 billion loan. And in December 2016, it “secretly transferred the remaining 49.9% as collateral for the loan to the Russian government,” according to the Panamanian newspaper Panam Post.

Based on this information from the Panamanian media, the above-mentioned Moreno concludes that “in this way, the Russian state-owned company Rosneft gained full control over the Citgo refinery located in the United States.

On August 28, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump banned his country from trading in debt securities and shares issued by the Venezuelan government and its state-owned oil company, PDVSA, as well as certain existing bonds held by Venezuela’s public sector and dividend payments to the government of Nicolás Maduro. In 2019, the Trump administration sanctioned nearly all of Venezuela’s tanker fleet, hoping to prevent PDVSA from selling its oil outside the country.

In November 2022, with the global oil market in crisis, the United States signed a historic agreement with Venezuela that resulted in the American oil giant Chevron receiving “license number 41.” A permit that allowed the Yankees to continue their activities in the Caribbean country and opened up some outlet for Venezuela on the external market. This pacification continued in 2023, when an agreement was signed to temporarily suspend all sanctions in exchange for negotiations with the opposition on holding free and transparent elections.

The US tightened the screws again after the CNE banned two opposition candidates, Corina Machado and Corina Joris, from running for president. The Americans said the Venezuelan government had failed to meet its “commitments to ensure the integrity of the elections on any other front.” Washington returned to sanctions policy, but Caracas left license No. 41 in force. Moreover, the de facto permission to work with Venezuelan oil was extended to other Western companies, such as Spain’s Repsol, France’s Maurel & Prom, and Italy’s Eni.

According to Western experts, in particular Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Program at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, "today the Venezuelan oil industry is completely dependent on investments and decisions made by Chevron." And "nationalization of fields and enterprises with their subsequent transfer to Chinese, Russian, Indian or Brazilian companies is fraught with collapse. Venezuela needs dollars to curb inflation, and Chevron is one of the main drivers of this currency, a very important source of dollars, which helped to avoid the devaluation of the bolivar. Caracas has made great efforts to avoid this devaluation. And by ousting the American giant from its market, it can lose everything," Monaldi warns.

To make his gloomy forecasts look "worse than possible", the expert deliberately ignores the topic of the BRICS countries creating their own currency for settlements within the bloc and with its partners. And the topic of settlements between countries in national currencies too. Meanwhile, in the oil sector in 2023, about 20% of transactions were already carried out without the dollar.

The positive for Russia (as well as Brazil, China, India) of strengthening on the Venezuelan oil market is obvious: this is not only new levers of influence on world oil prices, but also a strengthening of positions in the confrontation with the US and the rest of the West. For Venezuela, cooperation with the BRICS countries (and with Russia first and foremost) means liberation from Washington's dictate and will allow it to ignore the sanctions it introduces against Caracas.

Cooperation with BRICS, Venezuelan experts expect, will allow the country to increase its daily oil production from the current 992,000 barrels per day to two million in 2025. Which is not the limit – in 1998, production reached a record 3.3 million, which means that investors from BRICS countries have serious prospects for production growth and, accordingly, business profitability. Moreover, as is known, Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

https://vz.ru/opinions/2024/8/18/1281937.html

Interesting move by the most important organisations in the US, Vanguard and BlackRock. One rule for the US and another for the vassals.


The world's largest oilfield services company is expanding its operations in Russia.

The Financial Times reports that Schlumberger (SLB) has signed new contracts and hired hundreds of staff in Russia after its biggest Western rivals pulled out of the Russian market.

Let us recall that a year ago the company announced that it would stop supplying products and technologies to Russia.
- FRWL reports


Large Schlumberger shareholders

Chay Bowes
@BowesChay
Just what was needed to blow up Nordstream?  and why is the idea that a "rented yacht" with 3 Ukrainians on board are responsible is not only pathetic but utterly impossible.

Technical Complexity

The pipelines are very deep underwater, requiring not just diving expertise but also the ability to handle and place explosives at depths around 80 meters. This involves significant logistical challenges, including complex and exceptionally expert managing of  decompression times, ultra precise navigation, and the absolutely super human act of  manually attaching large amounts of explosives to a concrete-encased steel pipeline.

Explosives Handling

The operation would have required specifically prepared military-grade explosives, and handling them underwater adds another layer of exceptional difficulty. The precision needed to cause the kind of damage observed suggests not just any explosives but ones designed for such a task, likely requiring specialized knowledge and large-scale operational supports and training

Operational Security

Carrying out such an act covertly in international waters, where surveillance was and is incredibly high, requires operational security that's far beyond what a small, ad-hoc group might be able to achieve without significant backing or training, the very idea that this scale of precision attack could have been carried out without deep sea submersible capabilities and intricate surface support is essentially ludicrous.

Logistics

Renting a yacht, navigating to the exact location, and executing the practically impossible sabotage without immediate detection or interception speaks to a level of planning obviously beyond a "few people on a yacht" This includes covertly securing vessel, fitting it to carry large amounts of explosives capable of operating in a hostile marine environment and ensuring it's not tracked all while managing the logistics of the operation itself?

What is most fascinating about the pathetically cobbled fantasy story Peddled by the client media is the fact that the lie, now told, will have to be perpetuated.

That, in my view, is more worrying than the Americans wanting to destroy a strategic piece of infrastructure beneficial to Russo European unity. They openly warned us they would destroy it if it was completed and opened, and of course, they did just that.

https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1825665931659346251

There was a massive NATO exercise in those waters not long before the pipelines were blown up. It included several US vessels, navy divers, robot submersibles, the works. And we are supposed to believe a couple of schmucks on a yacht with scuba gear conducted sabotage at 80 m depth. Bah.

India overtakes China to become Russia’s top oil buyer – data, 08.24.2024.

Russian crude accounted for 44% of New Delhi’s overall imports last month.

India has surpassed China as the world’s biggest importer of Russian oil in July, a comparison of import data has shown.

New Delhi has been increasing crude purchases due to discounts offered by Moscow as Russia shifts energy exports away from Western markets in response to Ukraine-related sanctions.

Russian crude accounted for 44% of India’s overall imports last month, rising to a record 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd), 4.2% higher than in June and 12% more than a year ago, according to data on Indian shipments from trade and industry sources.

China’s oil imports from Russia via pipelines and shipments in July totalled 1.76 million bpd, Chinese customs data shows. The drop in purchases by Chinese refiners is due to lower profit margins from producing fuels, data suggests.

Indian refiners have been increasing purchases of discounted Russian oil since February 2022, after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow and cut their energy imports in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

“India’s requirement for Russian oil is going to go up as long as there are no further tightening of sanctions,” an Indian refining source told Reuters.

India’s increasing purchases are changing the flow of Russian ESPO (Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline) Blend crude from traditional Chinese buyers to South Asia.

ESPO imports to India jumped in July to 188,000 bpd as larger Suezmax vessels were used, according to shipping data.

Iraq remained the second-largest oil supplier to India last month, followed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

India’s crude purchases from the Middle East rose 4% in July, pushing up the region’s share in India’s overall mix to 40% from 38% in June, the data showed.

https://www.rt.com/india/603002-india-russian-oil-imports/