My heart's . . . on fire . . . for Fu-jai-rah

 United Arab Emirates leaving OPEC, effective May 1

 

Overall inflation reversed course and ticked higher in August 2023 on a monthly jump in overall energy prices

 Overall inflation jumped up to 3.7% year-over-year and 0.6% month-over-month on a 5.6% jump in overall energy inflation month-over-month in August 2023.

Month-over-month, electricity was up 0.2%, gasoline was up 10.6%, piped utility gas was up 0.6%, fuel oil and other fuels were up 8.4%. Meanwhile food was up 0.2%.

Core inflation (overall inflation less food and energy) increased mom 0.3% and is still running 4.4% yoy.

Services inflation is still running high at 5.4% yoy, less rent of shelter at 3.1% yoy.

Shelter inflation rose mom 0.3% in both measures, and 7.2% yoy seasonally adjusted.

Going forward I expect inflation pressures to persist because of Biden administration green energy fantasies and hatred of fossil fuels combining with OPEC+ production cuts continuing indefinitely. 

LOL US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm: Our planet is on fire, but OPEC needs to produce more crude oil

 

“There is a lot of emotion in these markets and so we have deep concern about trajectories of where things are headed,” the energy secretary added.   

No kidding.

Story. 

OPEC expects global oil demand to rise to 110 million barrels per day by 2045

 Reported here.

2022 global production averaged 80.6 million barrels per day on one accounting.

OPEC must think the 2022 figure closer to 90 million bpd since it projects growth in demand of 23%.

According to this, crude oil remained the top primary energy source in the world at 31.2% in 2020, followed by coal at 27.2%, and natural gas at 24.7%.

71% of China's primary energy is derived from coal. China is the world's number one emitter of so-called greenhouse gases.

Joe Biden's nuclear war comments are completely irresponsible, but so is just about everything that comes out of his pie hole

 He's making matters worse, not better.

He's attributing statements to Putin which Putin did not make, which is the default practice for Democrats when speaking of their opponents.

A lot more is at stake than losing control of the US House and Senate in a few weeks.

Joe's irresponsible remarks risk real catastrophe from a deadly opponent.

Think what you will about Putin, Biden is a fool. 

Nobody fucks around with a Biden, he says, the day after Saudi Arabia does just that, telling him to go pound sand.

The whole world knows he's a fool, which is perilous for the rest of us.

Biden: Nuclear ‘Armageddon’ risk highest since ’62 crisis

 

BIDEN WARNS OF NUCLEAR 'ARMAGEDDON'
 

Monday situation summary 3/9/20

The CDC basically urged people 60 and over to become hermits at home to avoid infection with SARS-CoV-2. High blood pressure appears to be the one thing most who die of the virus have in common.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Italy is killing off parents and grandparents at an alarming level because the healthcare system, though quite advanced up north, is overwhelmed by the disease outbreak. Reports say many patients die in hospital untreated, just as in China in the early days of the epidemic there, because of inadequate infrastructure and doctors for so many patients. The quarantine has been extended now to the entire country. That is not being done to make Donald Trump look bad. 

Stock market losses today were sizable. The decline in the S&P 500 made the top 20 list for daily percentage losses. The stock market is a confidence game, and valuation has grown to outrageous levels and stayed there for a couple of years already, so it has been vulnerable to a confidence shock. People just didn't believe it was. The virus hysteria is undercutting that confidence. 

The price of oil plunged as OPEC failed to agree to production cuts. Expect big trouble for the economy as a result, which was already in decline, which is why OPEC wanted the cuts. Declining demand. Max von Sydow died to mark the occasion. Hint: He played Joubert.

People are afraid to fly and some flights are nearly empty. It's a good thing, too, because a study from China is out indicating infected persons can infect others in enclosed, air conditioned spaces like buses, even after they've disembarked. One person infected 11 this way. This also happened in Japan you will recall, where a bus driver was infected by tourists from Wuhan on his bus.

US cases of COVID-19 soared to 654 from the 15 President Trump said back in February were headed to zero. Can't make this go away with the Power of Positive Thinking.

Trump asks for more oil, OPEC delivers

Story here.

A favor to save the Republicans' November election bacon.

Trump request for 1 million barrel per day oil production boost from Saudis and others debated in Kuwait over the weekend

What's this? Trump has to ask the Arabs to do what American producers cannot?

The story is here.

Analyst says oil price plummet primarily driven by OPEC abandoning swing producer role

Dirk Leach, who also credits the rising dollar but not to the extent others have, here:

"Now that OPEC has abdicated their role as swing producer, the only mechanism to stabilize oil prices is the market itself based on supply and demand. As we are now seeing, the supply side of that balance has a lot of inertia. Despite some analysts' view that shale production can be turned on and off rather quickly, the time it takes to decrease production is measured in months or quarters while the crude oil price response is essentially immediate. Going forward, we appear to have a crude oil market pricing system with a very fast response time and a very slow feedback mechanism (supply adjustments). Generally, this type of system is not very stable and results in frequent large swings in market pricing. Going forward, it might be a more bumpy oil market than we have been used to."

The global oil war just got even more interesting: Dept. of Commerce relaxes export ban

With a tip o' the hat to Andrew Critchlow at the UK Telegraph, Reuters reported just a couple of hours ago that the US Dept. of Commerce has announced relaxation of some parts of the 1974 US oil export ban, here:

(Reuters) - The Obama administration has opened a new front in the global battle for oil market share, effectively clearing the way for the shipment of as much as a million barrels per day of ultra-light U.S. crude to the rest of the world.

The Department of Commerce on Tuesday ended a year-long silence on a contentious, four-decade ban on oil exports, saying it had begun approving a backlog of requests to sell processed light oil abroad. It also issued a long-awaited document outlining exactly what kinds of oil other would-be exporters can ship. ...

... the impending swell of U.S. petroleum into global markets may intensify what many analysts say is a pivotal oil market war, with Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) unwilling to yield ground. Now they will face even greater competition beyond U.S. shores.

IEA revises down 2015 oil demand growth by 20%, a third of British oilers in big trouble, mostly smaller

Andrew Critchlow reported Dec. 12th here:

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday that world demand for oil will grow by 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year, a downward revision of 230,000 bpd from its previous estimate.

The Paris-based watchdog now expects world demand to reach 93.3m bpd in 2015. The agency said: "A strong dollar and the lifting of subsidies have so far limited supportive price effects on demand."

And here on the 29th:

A third of Britain’s listed oil and gas companies are in danger of running out of working capital and even going bankrupt amid a slump in the value of crude, according to new research.

Financial risk management group Company Watch believes that 70pc of the UK’s publicly listed oil exploration and production companies are now unprofitable, racking up significant losses in the region of £1.8bn.