Archiv: energy / power plants / supply / infrastructures / technologies


01.09.2024 - 16:45 [ Pravda.com.ua ]

Drones attack two Russian power plants and Moscow refinery – videos, photos

As usual, the Russian authorities say that „there were no casualties or damage, no fire occurred“.

At the same time, Russian Telegram channels posted photos and videos taken by local residents showing the strikes at the plant.

01.09.2024 - 16:32 [ Washington Post ]

Ukrainian drone targets Moscow oil refinery

Video shows the moment Ukrainian drones targeted an oil refinery in Moscow region on Sept. 1, in what appeared to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia yet.

05.04.2023 - 10:04 [ Oilprice.com ]

Will OPEC’s Surprise Production Cuts Push Oil Prices To $100?

It was Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait who led the surprise cuts, alongside OPEC’s second-largest producer Iraq and another half a dozen OPEC+ producers, including Russia.

While Russia’s extension of its own 500,000-bpd cut until the end of the year was no surprise – analysts had largely baked in a drop in Russian production in view of the embargoes and price caps on its oil – the move from OPEC’s heavyweights came as a surprise. And sent a clear message to the market—we are in charge.

03.03.2023 - 18:40 [ Nasdaq.com ]

Big Oil to take centerstage at Houston meet as markets, alliances shift

The war in Ukraine sparked a rally in crude oil and fuel prices that led to record industry profits, prompting the U.S. government and others to accuse Big Oil of profiteering and for Britain and some other governments to impose windfall taxes on energy companies.

02.03.2023 - 16:07 [ moldpres.md ]

Unites States announces additional emergency assistance worth 300 million dollars for Moldova

(25.02.2023)

The financing will include a directly budgetary support of 80 million dollars, through which the quite high prices for electric energy of this winter will be compensated. Also, 135 million dollars will be used for backing projects on electric energy’s generation, for Moldova to diversify the sources of getting electricity. Another 85 million will be provided to Moldova to enhance the capacity of supply with energy from alternative sources and get energy independence from Russia.

02.03.2023 - 16:01 [ Novosti Pridnestrovya (Transnistria) ]

The contract for the supply of Pridnestrovian electricity to Moldova has been extended

Today, Moldavskaya GRES extended the contract for the supply of electricity to Moldova for another month.

23.02.2023 - 20:22 [ New York Times ]

What Exxon and Chevron Are Doing With Those Big Profits

(Feb. 1, 2023)

The variables that will determine oil companies’ profitability this year are largely out of their control — in both supply and demand. The war in Ukraine could expand or not; a recession in the United States and Europe could be deep or averted entirely. Prices for fuels, and inflation generally, will largely depend on how events play out.

23.02.2023 - 19:48 [ Forbes ]

Shell Reports Record Profits As Oil Giants—Including Exxon, Chevron—Cash In On Sky-High Prices After Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

(Feb 2, 2023)

Shell reported an annual profit of nearly $40 billion in 2022, the highest in the firm’s 115-year history.

The figure is more than double the $19.3 billion the firm reported in 2021 and far greater than its previous record of $31 billion in 2008.

14.02.2023 - 07:48 [ Forbes ]

Shell Reports Record Profits As Oil Giants—Including Exxon, Chevron—Cash In On Sky-High Prices After Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

(Feb 2, 2023)

Shell reported an annual profit of nearly $40 billion in 2022, the highest in the firm’s 115-year history.

The figure is more than double the $19.3 billion the firm reported in 2021 and far greater than its previous record of $31 billion in 2008.

14.02.2023 - 07:32 [ Matías Vernengo and Esteban Pérez Calde / Post-Keynesian Economics Society / Researchgate.net ]

Price and Prejudice: A Note on the Return of Inflation and Ideology

With the acceleration of inflation in the post-pandemic recovery, the debate seemed to be limited to whether the inflationary spike would be short-lived or persistent and become imbedded into inflationary expectations. While some Keynesian authors like Paul Krugman initially believed that inflation was caused by cost-push factors including by the sharp rises in energy and foodstuff prices as a result of the Ukraine war, and that it would quickly subside, the debate shifted rapidly and a new consensus according to which inflation was, in part the result of over stimulation of demand during the pandemic coupled with supply side shocks that lowered the potential level of output which provides the main theoretical justification for raising interest rates. Thus, even when most authors accept the notion that snags in the supply chain played a role in the acceleration of inflation, the main cause is to be seen on the excess demand side with the economy beyond its potential output level.

The challenge to conventional wisdom, and its emphasis on demand, has come from left
of center authors, like Robert Reich, that suggest inflation is caused by greedy corporations that have increased their profit margins during a crisis. This has brought back the old debate about the relationship between administered prices and inflation, and the proposition that inflation is directly related to highly concentrated market structures, or what might be termed oligopolistic inflation.

In other words, there is an ideological divide between those that blame inflation in an incompetent government and central bank reaction to the pandemic versus those that suggest that the real culprits are greedy corporations rising their mark up above their costs.

09.02.2023 - 06:17 [ Seymour Hersh / Substack ]

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline

Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. Now, with Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border and the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945 looming, President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.

26.12.2022 - 04:19 [ theHill.com ]

Death toll from winter storm rises to at least 31

The storm brought hurricane-force winds and created whiteout conditions as it battered the area. A bomb cyclone, which happens when atmospheric pressure drops sharply in a strong storm, developed over the Great Lakes.

The storm has sent temperatures well below freezing in much of the country.

15.12.2022 - 09:14 [ Wim van Eck / radio-utopie.de ]

Electromagnetic Radiation from Video Display Units: An Eavesdropping Risk?

(1985)

In February, 1985, we carried out an eavesdropping experiment in London, in cooperation with the British Broadcasting Corporation. Part of the results were shown in the programme „Tomorrow‘s World.“ A small van was equipped with a 10 metre high pump mast to which a VHF band III antenna was clamped (10 dB gain). The received signal was fed through an antenna, amplified (18 dB) and displayed on a television screen inside the van.

For obvious reasons we cannot give information on the data picked up during the experiment. The results can be
summarized as follows:

• It is possible to eavesdrop on the video display units or terminals in buildings from a large distance, using a car fitted up for the purpose.

• Although the experiment was carried out in broad daylight and many people watched us, nobody asked what we were doing.

15.12.2022 - 09:00 [ Radio Utopie ]

Spionage und Informationskontrolle: Der technologische Quantensprung in 1943

(20.7.2014)

USA, 1943. Mitten im Zweiten Weltkrieg.

In einem Labor der 1877 vom Schwiegervater Alexander Graham Bells gegründeten Bell Company (heute der Weltkonzern AT&T), die für das 1860 gegründete Signal Corps der US Armee arbeitet, testet ein Wissenschaftler der Bell Company das 1925 von der US Armee in Dienst gestellte verschlüsselnde Text-Kommunikationssystem SIGTOT. Es arbeitet nach dem US Patent #1,310,719 für ein „geheimes Signalsystem“ des Bell Technikers Gilbert S. Vernam aus 1919 und benutzt zur Verschlüsselung ein Bell Gerät namens 131-B2.

An jenem Tage des Jahres 1943 bemerkt nun der für die US Armee arbeitende Wissenschaftler der Bell Company ein technisches Phänomen, welches bis heute fast der gesamten Weltbevölkerung unbekannt ist, obwohl es die Sicherheit, die Privatsphäre, die Gesellschaften, die Staaten, die Sicherheit und das Leben von heute 7 Milliarden Menschen unmittelbar berührt und gefährdet:

jedes Mal wenn er über den verschlüsselnden Text-Kommunikations-Apparat SIGTOT einen Buchstaben eintippt, schlägt in einem entfernten Teil des Labors ein Oszilloskop aus. Und zwar fünf Mal, für jedes Zeichen pro Sekunde („baud“). Als er die angezeigten Spannungsspitzen näher analysiert, stellt er fest, dass er die in den Text-Kommunikations-Apparat der Armee per Hand eingetippten und anschließend verschlüsselten Texte aus der Entfernung unverschlüsselt mitlesen kann.

25.10.2022 - 19:05 [ Spectator.co.uk ]

Why are Europe’s gas prices falling?

In preparation for this winter, European countries have been rapidly filling their gas storage facilities with liquified natural gas (LNG) imported by ship from Qatar, the US and elsewhere. Those facilities are now reported to be virtually full. The latest phenomenon is LNG ships queuing off European coasts waiting to unload their cargoes – and being kept waiting because there is a shortage of storage space and facilities to unload. There are believed to be around 50 such ships currently at sea off Europe.

12.10.2022 - 12:18 [ Reuters ]

Druzhba pipeline leak cuts oil flow to Germany, accident blamed

Poland said on Wednesday a leak in one of the Druzhba pipelines bringing oil from Russia to Europe hit supplies to Germany and was most likely caused by an accident, as Europe remains on high alert over its energy security.

06.09.2022 - 09:17 [ Mehr News Agency ]

If sanctions lifted, Iran can meet Europe‘s energy needs

Referring to the energy crisis in Europe, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman said that if JCPOA negotiations are successful and unilateral sanctions against the country are lifted, Iran can meet most of Europe‘s needs.

03.09.2022 - 07:51 [ Independent.co.uk ]

Russia’s Gazprom shuts European gas pipeline indefinitely as energy crisis escalates

Russia’s state-controlled natural gas supplier, Gazprom, heralded a major escalation in Moscow’s energy war with Western Europe on Friday when it announced that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would remain closed indefinitely, a move that increases the prospect of blackouts and economic turmoil across the continent.

02.09.2022 - 19:49 [ theGuardian.com ]

Energy price inflation: how the UK and EU could fight it

Is there international action that can be taken now?

It appears increasingly likely that some forms of coordinated international action will be taken, mirroring responses to the global financial crisis, the eurozone debt crisis and the Covid pandemic.

The former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi floated the idea of “a cartel of buyers” at a meeting with the US president, Joe Biden, in May. This would involve large oil consumers working together to negotiate prices.

01.09.2022 - 16:53 [ Iranintl.com ]

Iran Says Europe Needs A Nuclear Deal ‚Not To Freeze‘ This Winter

Once the deal is restored the United States will lift oil export sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump when he withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. It will also remove international banking restrictions also imposed as part of Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ on Tehran.

But what Iranian media presents as ‘Europe’s freezing winter” has almost nothing to do with Tehran’s crude oil exports, except generally helping to bring down oil prices. Europe’s need to replace Russian gas is a specific issue on its own that Iran cannot help with at all.

01.09.2022 - 16:50 [ Wall Street Journal ]

Granholm to Europe: Tough Luck – The Energy Secretary bullies U.S. companies to reduce fuel exports.

America’s allies in Europe are desperate for alternative supplies of fuel amid the Ukraine war, and U.S. producers are happy to provide what they can. So wouldn’t you know the Biden Administration now wants to limit fuel exports.

That’s the message Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm sent last week in a letter imploring seven major refiners to limit fuel exports. We obtained a copy of the letter, which the Administration didn’t release publicly.

01.09.2022 - 16:23 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Putin has pulled off a shock win that could destroy the free world

We risk ending up with calamitous poverty, civil disobedience, a new socialist government by next year, a break-up of the UK, nationalisations, price and incomes policies, punitive wealth taxes and eventually a complete economic and financial meltdown and IMF bailout. The situation in the EU is, if anything, worse.

This is not a plea for pacifism, for looking away when Ukraine is being illegally invaded by a savage regime. Britain was – and remains – morally right to back Ukraine in a carefully calibrated way. Instead, this is a plea for an economic counter-offensive, for Liz Truss, the next PM, to tackle Putin’s economic and energy war head-on.

01.09.2022 - 15:53 [ Express.co.uk ]

‚Everything has gone up!‘ Britons struggle to make ends meet as wages stagnate

Rising food prices, soaring petrol prices and sky high energy bills are pushing households into poverty as wages fail to keep up with demand.

Bristol residents have been telling express.co.uk how they are struggling to find the extra money to pay for increasing rents and bills.

30.08.2022 - 20:12 [ Bloomberg.com ]

Iran May Drain Offshore Oil Cache If Nuclear Deal Reached

Progress toward an Iranian nuclear deal has thrown the spotlight onto a sizeable cache of crude held by Tehran that could be swiftly dispatched to buyers in the event an agreement gets hammered out.

29.08.2022 - 14:17 [ Tehran Times ]

Iran, a major oil and natural gas supplier, can help stabilize volatile market: Atlantic Council

As fuel prices skyrocket following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iran as another major supplier of oil and natural gas is poised to play an important role, the Atlantic Council said in a commentary on March 3.

29.07.2022 - 16:07 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

As the EU bails out Germany, we should thank God we left

The result is that the EU faces a winter like that endured by Britain under Sir Edward Heath: with energy rationed, perhaps through planned outages. For fans of the EU Sir Edward has long been a totemic figure: the Prime Minister who took us into the bloc without bothering to ask the people in a referendum. How ironic that the EU’s energy policy is now leading it down the same road as Heath’s Britain.

25.07.2022 - 19:17 [ Kathimerini ]

Saudi crown prince to visit Greece to sign energy, telecoms deals

The ministry said the pair were due to sign bilateral deals, without giving details. A Greek diplomatic source said the deals were in the fields of energy, military cooperation, and an undersea data cable, among others.

Greece and Saudi Arabia agreed in May on the main terms to set up a joint venture to lay the data cable that will link Europe with Asia.

25.07.2022 - 18:55 [ Oilprice.com ]

Europe Does A Complete U-Turn On African Oil And Gas

„The gas here goes to Bonny and Europe to power homes and industries but we have no benefits from it,“ one local community development activist from the Niger Delta told Bloomberg recently. „Nothing comes to us.“

The comment was part of an in-depth analysis by Bloomberg on Europe‘s mad dash for gas that has seen Nigeria, for example, send millions of tons of LNG abroad while local communities use illegally made fuels and wood to stay warm. Nigeria is far from the only one.

25.07.2022 - 18:47 [ bnnBloomberg.ca ]

Europe’s Rush to Buy Africa’s Natural Gas Draws Cries of Hypocrisy

The issue of climate finance will likely dominate this year’s COP27 talks in Egypt, which is set to focus heavily on solutions for Africa. The future of gas will also be a key topic given the host nation and many developing countries see it as a way to move away from coal, according to Kwasi Kwarteng, business secretary of the UK, which hosted last year’s summit. “For them, gas is part of the transition.“

The International Energy Agency, which last year called for an end to new fossil fuel developments, in a recent report argued that Africa should be allowed to exploit its gas resources.

25.07.2022 - 18:18 [ Express.co.uk ]

Germany ‘urgently’ begs for gas as Russia supplies running dry: ‚We can‘t afford it‘

(Apr 28, 2022)

The Haidach gas storage facility near Salzburg is reportedly almost empty. This is where Russia’s state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, sends its gas. But Bavaria‘s Economics Minister Aiwanger has warned that the German state urgently needs to ramp up its capacity before winter.

12.07.2022 - 10:31 [ Oilprice.com ]

Why Is The U.S. Sending Its Emergency Oil Reserves To China?

(08.07.2022)

What is most notable is that a third cargo headed to US arch-enemy, China, which is now directly benefiting at the expense of US consumers as a result of Biden‘s escalating panic to undo the consequences of his catastrophic green policies by selling the most valuable US assets directly to Beijing!

But what is even scarier is the following exchange, in which the White House simply had no response when asked if the US is selling its emergency reserve oil to China.

12.07.2022 - 10:22 [ Oilprice.com ]

Saudis Unwilling To Upset Putin As Biden Begs For More Crude

(Jul 03, 2022)

The world’s largest crude oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, continues to keep close ties with Russia while the top oil consumer, the United States, pleads with major producers—including the Kingdom—to boost supply to the market and help ease consumers’ pain at the pump. While the U.S. and its Western allies are sanctioning Moscow and banning oil imports from Russia, U.S. President Joe Biden is also turning to Saudi Arabia to ask it to pump more oil as Americans pay on average $5 a gallon for gasoline.

12.07.2022 - 09:31 [ Yahoo.com ]

Biden’s Quest for Saudi Oil Faces Reality-Check of Slim Capacity

The US president’s visit to a country he once vowed to isolate represents a significant thawing of relations, but the Saudis and their OPEC partners have limited spare production capacity to offer in return for this political concession. Some market watchers also question whether tapping this supply buffer would calm energy markets, or just make matters worse.

“A surge in Saudi production seems unlikely,” said Ben Cahill, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.