Energy News Beat

As part of their collaborative effort to accelerate the advancement and fabrication of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), Honda and GM founded the Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC (FCSM), a specialized plant for mass-producing HFC systems for their respective models.

By combining Honda’s fuel cell technology and GM’s manufacturing expertise, both corporations want to advance hydrogen fuel cell technology, cut expenses, and expand their manufacturing capacities to take advantage of economies of scale. In the long run, this partnership may lead to greater acceptance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by utilizing the advantages of each company.

Vehicles using hydrogen fuel cells run on an efficient and clean electrochemical method, as opposed to gasoline engines, which depend on combustion. They use hydrogen gas as fuel, and electricity is produced from hydrogen and oxygen through a sequence of events inside the fuel cell stack. Since the only consequence of this process is water vapor, hydrogen fuel cell cars represent a viable, low-emission, environmentally friendly mode of transportation.

Benefits of hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) technology

Transportation without emissions: HFCVs only emit water vapor as a byproduct, making them a more environmentally friendly option than conventional gasoline and electric cars, which depend on the creation of batteries and power.
Extended driving range: HFCVs have driving ranges that are on a level with gasoline-powered automobiles, which may allay worries about the constrained range that is sometimes connected to electric vehicles.
Quick refuel: Refueling a hydrogen car can be faster than charging an electric vehicle, potentially offering more convenience on long trips.

Honda’s new hydrogen vehicle

The Honda CR-V HFCV is a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle based on the popular Honda CR-V SUV. It has an estimated driving range of around 250 miles on a single fill of hydrogen, which is comparable to many gasoline-powered vehicles.

The 2024 CR-V has a tough exterior with a lengthy wheelbase and broad stance. This hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is equipped with features such as roof rails and a hands-free power tailgate, which make it suitable for a variety of adventures, whether you’re driving across town or the country.

Honda has designed an ideal cabin to explore the country. Thanks to a simple layout and wide sightlines, you will feel right at home as soon as you step in. A roomy cargo area, front seats with body-stabilizing technology, and a Bose premium sound system are among the interior features.

Additionally, there are many advancements in the CR-V, including responsive acceleration in both powertrains and elegant handling with available all-wheel drive (AWD). You can easily connect your smartphone with the available 9-inch touchscreen and wireless Apple CarPlay compatibility.

The CR-V FCEV is an amazing car, but perhaps its only drawback is the availability of hydrogen refueling stations is limited compared to traditional gas stations, which means that it can only be leased in California, where the hydrogen infrastructure is more developed.

The future of Honda and GM partnership

The association between Honda and GM is a major advancement for HFC technology. Nonetheless, additional work is required to solve issues, build out the hydrogen infrastructure, and increase customer interest in and accessibility of HFC vehicles.

While HFC technology is promising, challenges including low infrastructure for recharging, high production costs, and consumer range anxiety must be resolved if HFCV is to become more widely used. Therefore, Honda and GM should remain committed to further research and development of HFC technology to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and expand the range of HFCVs.

Furthermore, the joint venture investments between Honda and GM should concentrate on constructing a strong hydrogen refueling infrastructure, since this is essential for maintaining the feasibility and widespread integration of HFC automobiles.

The post Honda and GM have already said goodbye to electric cars: this is how they are preparing their new hydrogen beast appeared first on Energy News Beat.

Energy News Beat

Steve Reese stopped by the NAPE Podcast Pavillion, and this interview was fun, personal, and truly has some insights into the Energy Markets. He has been on the podcast several times, and they have always garnered great feedback (and selfishly large volume).

It is fun when you can have the opportunity to do live podcast events and more fun when you can let your guests know how much they have impacted you both personally and professionally. Our discussion around the great Toby Keith was also meaningful as he really supported the University of Oklahoma and everyone he met.

In the United States, natural gas, midstream, and now the global markets for LNG Reese Consulting have been mainstays for our industry for decades. So when Steve and his team talk about their trends and insights, I listen.

Thank you, Steve, for your leadership, faith, and friendship. – Stu.

Follow Steve on his LinkedIn HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-reese-185a86/

Check out Reese Consulting HERE: https://www.reeseenergyconsulting.com/Highlights of the Podcast

Highlights of the Podcast

01:02 – Gratitude for support and faith during health trials

02:10 – Reese Consulting’s success and team

03:18 – Ventures and projects in the energy industry

04:30 – Remembering Toby Keith and his impact

06:00 – Personal stories and reflections on marriage

08:07 – Future of natural gas and its importance

11:44 – Global demand and export of LNG

13:18 – Resolving challenges and taking control of what we can influence

13:50 – Acknowledgment and conclusion

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Steve Reese Conversations in Energy – Final Cut.mp4

Stuart Turley [00:00:07] They welcome energy. Newsbeat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley President and CEO of sandstone group. There are some things happening in the energy world right now, but right now we’re at make. It is an absolutely wonderful event and I mean, it is fun, but there are industry leaders and then there’s industry legends. I have a friend here today and he has been around the industry since Moses. I think Moses and him were there at the parting of the Red sea. And I was going to say, Moses in the ark, but that doesn’t go together. I gotcha. What race investing race? I mean, at this race, he’s the CEO of Race consulting and race training. Welcome, Steve.

Steve Reese [00:00:57] Thank you sir. I’m still getting sand out of my, sandals from. And Moses wandering the desert for 40 years. But I’m trying to thank you.

Stuart Turley [00:01:05] Oh, I’ll tell you what I did. You know, Moses can be forgiven. Yeah, we all could.

Steve Reese [00:01:12] Yeah, I’m right there with you. You know, it’s an honor to be here. As you know, it’s an honor for me to be alive today after what I’ve been through. And I know a lot of people out here and prayed for me during my health trials and other issues we had. And and I’m forever grateful. And this industry, which stayed on my family’s table. And that’s what it’s all about.

Stuart Turley [00:01:38] You know. I’m going to share with you a personal item, and that is, you know, I’ve been friends and I’ve been on my podcast a while. This is our first time of being able to get a hug ride, and your sickness helped me when I needed it. It sounds kind of odd, but your faith in praying for you and actually seeing your strength if you helped me out. And I don’t mean that in the wrong way, but.

Steve Reese [00:02:08] You know, I understand.

Stuart Turley [00:02:09] Your impact on people is.

Steve Reese [00:02:11] Huge. Well, that’s a good lord. But, you know, it’s not me because I’m just, financially shame and being like the rest of us, right? I’m just a doofus. But I wish that, you know, and there’s always ways we can help each other and work. We’re not a different species, right? We’re all humans, right? We’re we’re trying to love each other. And all of this other stuff is great, right? But when it comes down to your it’s and your family, your. Those are the things that really drive us.

Stuart Turley [00:02:41] Oh, it is. And you’re, not only an industry leader, but you’re, a moral leader and an inspiration.

Steve Reese [00:02:48] So. Thank you. I appreciate that. So what’s on your mind today? What do you.

Stuart Turley [00:02:52] Well, I’ll tell you what. You got your push on the natural gas and, Nord Stream and everything else. With the res consulting I get to visit. You’ve got a great staff and and with your staff. It is so fun when you talk about them. Your eyes light up, and I good seeing y’all as good people.

Steve Reese [00:03:13] And I’m very fortunate. You know what’s amazing is these last two years, half the time flat on my back, not able to engage our company exploded and our numbers have done this. And it’s because, I’m not proud. Reagan used to say, you know, he said, I’m just gonna hire people smarter than me, right? Right. And, I just been fortunate, a lot of people, as you know, Stormin Norman, the executive VP thing, that’s, just a rock star, just hired Kimberly Paige for business development. She’s ran down into, like, Renzo Piano and Julius Lightner. Kim Yancey, those people, from that roll up, they’re 30 year veterans, so they know how things work in my field. Guys. Yeah. We’re involved in all kinds of ventures now, from our typical consulting and marketing and auditing. Right. As you know, we have an office in Berlin. We’re looking at it now, AG over there. And, we’re just having the time of our lives. And, I think the good Lord that now I’m back and. Yeah. Be healthy. Hey, Kenny. Jerry Chandler, you know the number two picture on the big chief tablet? You know.

Stuart Turley [00:04:37] That band has.

Steve Reese [00:04:38] Gone.

Stuart Turley [00:04:39] Wrong. You know, I am so happy for you. And it it seems like the more, I’m a sponsor of yours and, looking into what’s out there for you.

Steve Reese [00:04:49] Vicki, Dolphins is amazing. Her voice, she can articulate things and bring in the humor and the data and everything. I mean, you know. Reach 1500 thousand views. Sometimes you.

Stuart Turley [00:05:03] May get.

Steve Reese [00:05:04] An answer. And she deserves a lot of credit. Absolutely.

Stuart Turley [00:05:07] Well, it’s also the you say smacks of things that sound good and you didn’t go to any issue. So that is a good thing.

Steve Reese [00:05:15] Yeah. You know.

Stuart Turley [00:05:16] We.

Steve Reese [00:05:18] We love to hear about, you know, like you, I do have something pretty cool this week. Did you know that you would, the hard thoughts about, you know, we lost a good sooner.

Stuart Turley [00:05:28] We can talk more on that.

Steve Reese [00:05:30] Later on Wednesday night with the basketball game, where he said, kind of in front of where we sit on the baseline and in his chair. They had his guitar in a red solo cup, and there was a young.

Stuart Turley [00:05:44] Little team.

Steve Reese [00:05:45] After the game and they were, you know, breaking up in tears. These are young African Americans off the ground. And they said Toby was like your dad to them.

Stuart Turley [00:05:56] I read Toby Keith and just thank you for that. I bought every one of his albums. That is my favorite, favorite, band of music. Yeah. I mean, in that way, he meant the world to me. And I love that because you can see him on football games over there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, seeing him or even the.

Steve Reese [00:06:17] Women’s gymnastics or softball and everything. But, you know, the thing about him was he was just a regular guy and friends that I know that were around him all the time said, you know, he was just a normal guy. He, you know, having, you know, we had a dancer that he was very engaged, sort of Special Olympics. Right? Very engaging sports. Are you women’s? Are there are you children’s hospital? I know friends of mine that would like to engage sports instead of, he’d say, well, just take one of my cars with this car collection. They get which one? He goes out there, you know, take the Lamborghini. Oh, sure. Said he loved helping people. And then I met him and his wife. They have three great kids. And, how is that a legacy, though, you know?

Stuart Turley [00:07:06] Oh, yeah. And, I’m going to talk about me.

Steve Reese [00:07:08] That was one of my favorites. So absolutely.

Stuart Turley [00:07:11] I want to talk about me. I wish I could sit here and go through what he’s saying is, Willie Nelson, who sang with Winehouse, and he was so excited that he just, cut it early and it was, because he was in a, turnkey cottage again. Yeah. That’s right. I want to know what.

Steve Reese [00:07:33] What? Seriously, I’m.

Stuart Turley [00:07:34] Not a.

Steve Reese [00:07:35] Fan, but Casino Smile guide. But when I first got sick, I wanted to see an interview he did with castaway. I just I was like, yeah. And he says, you know, how do you do watch? And he said, he said, I don’t work the old man in. And, you know, there’s a song he did that. I just wrote short stories. And so I’m just I’m like the old mangling, during the sickness. And it really helped me feel a lot better. So.

Stuart Turley [00:08:06] Yes. Yes, I am.

Steve Reese [00:08:08] Paul. Oh, yeah. Well.

Stuart Turley [00:08:12] I have basically.

Steve Reese [00:08:13] I’m going to be 90, but you know, who cares, right?

Stuart Turley [00:08:16] Oh no.

Steve Reese [00:08:17] I shoot, you have a meal versus a good night barbecue on and off and on for a long time. And, we’ve made a lot of headway here today. We’ve got a really nice potential projects. That’s. It was money well spent. Absolutely.

Stuart Turley [00:08:33] You know, what’s really, really great about this is being able to see me. I admit, I’m not going to get maybe, 15 people that I’ve interviewed in person, but I had my friend in person in the.

Steve Reese [00:08:49] Library, and.

Stuart Turley [00:08:50] I, I mean, I got together, but. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I would just go right on through this whole process and people are recognizing me, and I’m having a great time of my life.

Steve Reese [00:09:03] You know, I’ve had so many people come up and tell me they were praying for me. They tell me how my daughter influenced their lives. And, so obviously tonight we’re going to buy you a big steak. Then Christina says, I can’t write to me. Still, I gotta sit my story.

Stuart Turley [00:09:23] So I sit with our.

Steve Reese [00:09:25] She’s five two. We call her 100 pounds of whip ass. Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:09:30] Well, if I had been married 37 years, she they too.

Steve Reese [00:09:34] Exactly. Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:09:35] I went. Hey.

Steve Reese [00:09:44] Excuse me for a second. Yeah. 11 seven, 87 and very six years for us. Okay. Seven.

Stuart Turley [00:09:52] And so we, we’re about within two days of being named, one year.

Steve Reese [00:09:57] So, so pretty. You shouldn’t set fire to the.

Stuart Turley [00:09:59] Now we’re next. Right in time. I thought this name jumped up with my 12 year old.

Steve Reese [00:10:05] Yeah, guess I understand. That’s fine. That’s not wrong. You know, I’m Sicilian, so. Hi. My name is Mark Casey. Oh, no. And so I would just be very careful. She knows where the bottom of the river was, and she. Might get you.

Stuart Turley [00:10:23] That’s okay. I do a grapefruit fermentation, so my boudin against her.

Steve Reese [00:10:27] There you go.

Stuart Turley [00:10:29] We’ll see what’s coming out of the burners. Release and, natural gas.

Steve Reese [00:10:33] What? I mean, for us. I just I really have no idea.

Stuart Turley [00:10:39] Look.

Steve Reese [00:10:39] You and I both know these guys nuts. These were neighbors. First time there’s a place for them somewhere, right? You know, natural gas, a bridge route, but is up the road, and it’s not going anywhere. We have regular production. We have a rising demand for wells. It’s industry’s amazing low emissions with natural gas. So I don’t talk. Yeah. And let them spend their money foolishly. But these producers here, they’re the ones that keep our homes heated, right? When it’s a cheap room, like I’ve always said, my friend Aubrey would say bring abundant, ubiquitous U.S. made, cheap natural gas. You know.

Stuart Turley [00:11:25] You and I are humanitarians, and it’s all about humanity delivering the lowest terawatt per hour to all citizens of the planet with the least amount of impact on the environment, with power and money. Natural gas? No. Dear God, you can do it. I don’t care. And like you say, wind chill. Fine. Sir. I’m so glad to know whether you me to do it. Exactly.

Steve Reese [00:11:53] And that’s wrong.

Stuart Turley [00:11:54] That is not sustainable. And and. So anyway, I am seeing more and more LNG plants going on all around the world. Export and import. That is phenomenal in a way.

Steve Reese [00:12:11] It’s it’s a global commodity. Now we’re pricing it based or pricing. It was rising in Europe and Japan. It’s it’s it’s not going anywhere yet. This pause on the exports. It’s not gonna hurt anything near term. The thing it does do is our partners in Europe and Japan are wondering if we can be good partners. But, you know, things change.

Stuart Turley [00:12:34] They do. They.

Steve Reese [00:12:36] And, you know, it’s not going to be something that’s going to stick around.

Stuart Turley [00:12:40] No. But it is a sad, especially when you’re driving people to.

Steve Reese [00:12:46] Russia.

Stuart Turley [00:12:46] And I.

Steve Reese [00:12:47] Have a.

Stuart Turley [00:12:47] Prediction. My prediction is when the Tucker Carlson interview comes out. He’s interviewed he just interviewed me. And I think that you’re going to see an end to the Ukrainian Russian war. I think that you’re going to see people buying Russian natural gas again, and that’s going to further, separate more people from the U.S. because of what’s going to be coming out. Sure. And, and I think that we shot ourselves in the foot.

Steve Reese [00:13:18] Yeah. But it’s it’s still a good thing about this country is we have the best reserve intelligence analysts anywhere else, and we’ll be fine. You just, you know, my deal is I just get up and I put one foot in front of the other. That’s all you can do is.

Stuart Turley [00:13:35] Control what we can influence. And you are a very tall man and can see a very far away.

Steve Reese [00:13:43] So I appreciate that.

Stuart Turley [00:13:45] And that, I’m very serious about that. So, we will have all your contact information in there, and we know that people are going to reach out to you, Steve. And I’d just like to again, thank you for everything you’ve done for.

Steve Reese [00:13:59] Me as well as well.

Stuart Turley [00:14:02] Thank you.

Steve Reese [00:14:03] They’ve got to go to work, my friend. Oh, no. Thank you.

Stuart Turley [00:14:06] Thank you all very much.

Steve Reese [00:14:08] Yeah, thanks.

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Energy News Beat

A federal appeals court on Wednesday axed an Obama-era moratorium on new coal mine leasing on public lands.

It did so by overturning a ruling from 2022 that revived the Obama-era freeze on auctioning off federally owned lands for coal mining.

In 2022, a lower court ruled that in ending the coal leasing pause, the Trump administration had not completed an adequate environmental impact study, and that the pause should therefore be reinstated.

But, this week, a panel of appellate judges vacated that ruling, deciding that the case was now moot.

They said the case was moot because Biden administration Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had revoked the order by Trump-era secretary Ryan Zinke that ended the moratorium.

Judges Ronald Gould, Jay Bybee and Daniel Bress told the lower court to dismiss the challenge to the Trump policy that was brought by environmental advocates, saying that their grievances are no longer the result of Zinke’s order.

“While appellees may be dissatisfied with the government’s position that the Haaland Order did not revive the … moratorium, this does not provide a basis for concluding that a challenge to the defunct Zinke Order is live,” wrote the Clinton, Bush and Trump appointees.

In 2021, Haaland rescinded the Zinke order, but stopped short of reimposing the Obama administration’s freeze. The department said at the time that it would instead continue to review a path forward on coal.

An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment when asked by The Hill whether the Biden administration planned to hold coal lease sales in light of the ruling.

A coal and mining lobbying group cheered the court ruling.

“This is a victory for American-mined energy,” said Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, in a written statement.

“With this ruling, important projects can once again advance and support the production of affordable, reliable power to the grid,” Nolan said.

In 2016, then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell halted new coal leasing on public lands while the department sought to study whether fees charged to mining companies properly accounted for the climate impacts of burning coal.

In light of the ruling, tribal and environmental leaders who sued in an effort to get the coal leasing pause reinstated called on the Biden administration to take action.

“Now that the court has ruled that the Trump administration decision to restart coal leasing was revoked, we need the Biden administration to step up and live up to its promises to protect our climate, conduct a long overdue review of the federal coal leasing program, and make thoughtful plans for the future of public lands,” said Northern Cheyenne Tribal Administrator William Walksalong in a written statement.

Source: The Hill

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Industrial companies are searching for ways to make steel, cement and chemicals without burning fossil fuels. Some of the world’s biggest investors are betting a fast-developing battery that stores heat can solve the problem.

 headline a group of financiers pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into startups making heat batteries. Also called thermal batteries, they use renewable energy to heat up blocks, rocks or molten salt. That heat is released on demand to power industrial processes.

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The Ukrainian Conflict is being decided on the battlefield, not on bank ledgers, which is why CNN’s innuendo about India financially fueling Russia’s participation in its proxy war with NATO in Ukraine falls flat. That country’s domestic military-industrial complex is responsible for its battlefield successes, not the foreign profits that it reaped from oil sales to India.

CNN published a report earlier in the week about how “The Kremlin has never been richer – thanks to a US strategic partner”, which argues that a significant share of Russia’s “unprecedented amount of cash in government coffers” nowadays is due to India’s purchase of its oil. Delhi scaled up consumption by a whopping thirteen times over the past two years to total of $37 billion worth in 2023. The innuendo is that India is financially fueling Russia’s participation in its proxy war with NATO in Ukraine.

To their credit, that outlet also informed readers near the beginning of their piece that “Russian crude sales to India are not subject to sanctions and are entirely legitimate”, but then they tried to add a dramatic flair by claiming that it “might involve the so-called ‘shadow fleet’ of crude tankers”.  Speculation about how $1 billion worth of Indian-refined Russian oil products might have eventually made their way to the US serves the purpose of making this otherwise boring trade newsworthy.

The reason why CNN published this report on the front page of their international edition was to smear India for purchasing Russian oil after its External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar defended this while speaking at an event with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They noted that the details therein were exclusively shared with them by an energy think tank that previously published on this subject, thus suggesting that they prepared for this some time ago to have time to analyze it all.

The timing wasn’t coincidental though since it was predictable that EAM Jaishankar would be asked about this during last weekend’s Munich Security Conference seeing as how journalists regularly probe him to see if his views have change as the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine has dragged on. They haven’t, and he made it very clear in the abovementioned hyperlinked analysis of his remarks that it’s in India’s objective national interests to continue purchasing discounted Russian oil.

A representative of India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry added more details to their country’s strategic calculations when speaking before a department-related parliamentary standing committee in late December. They explained that the price per barrel would have surged to $120-130 due to reduced OPEC output and increased European demand following the bloc’s decoupling from Russian energy. In that scenario, a polycrisis would have unfolded, and the whole world would have been destabilized.

Global South states, already heavily indebted as it was even before the pandemic and subsequent proxy war exacerbated these economic-financial challenges, would have struggled to meet their minimum energy needs. Political crises could have quickly taken on serious security dimensions and spread throughout their respective regions, thus plunging the entire developing world into pandemonium. All of this was averted by India scaling up its import of Russian oil and therefore stabilizing the energy market.

Although CNN touched upon India’s defense of these imports by quoting its Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas who said last week that prices would have reached $150 per barrel when they not done what they did, they didn’t make any reference to how this helped the Global South make ends meet. The only attempted analysis within the piece concerns their innuendo that India is financially fueling Russia’s participation in its proxy war with NATO in Ukraine, thus exposing CNN’s intent to smear that country.

Their effort fell flat, however, since the European Council on Foreign Relations published the results of their poll last month shortly thereafter proving that only 10% of Europeans in the 12 countries that they surveyed believe that Ukraine can beat Russia while double that at 20% think that Russia will win. By contrast, 37% believe that those two will reach a political compromise after some time, while the remainder either expect a different outcome, don’t know what will happen, or simply don’t care.

What this shows is that Europeans’ opinion towards India likely won’t change in light of CNN’s report since only a fraction of the people polled across the continent think that Ukraine will win anyhow. India’s role in serving as a valve from Western sanctions pressure on Russia certainly helped that country, but it wasn’t the reason why the West failed to strategically defeat it in Ukraine. Much more important by far is Moscow’s victory in the “race of logistics” with NATO, which doomed Kiev’s counteroffensive.

That in turn set into motion the sequence of events that recently culminated in Russia’s capture of Avdeeva and the West’s accelerated construction of “Fortress Europe” in response. Whatever “unprecedented amount of cash” that the Kremlin has in its possession is meaningless without the military strength to hold the Line of Contact and gradually push it westward. The same goes for the West’s cumulatively much larger funds that failed to decisively push it eastward last year.

The Ukrainian Conflict is being decided on the battlefield, not on bank ledgers, which is why CNN’s innuendo about India financially fueling Russia’s participation in its proxy war with NATO in Ukraine falls flat. That country’s domestic military-industrial complex is responsible for its battlefield successes, not the foreign profits that it reaped from oil sales to India. The impact of India’s Russian oil purchases was only felt on the energy market and in the Global South, not in the Eastern European trenches.

The post CNN’s Attempt To Smear India For Purchasing Russian Oil Fell Flat appeared first on Energy News Beat.

Energy News Beat

European small-scale LNG player Molgas continues to expand its LNG bunkering business with the completion of its first operations in Belgium.

According to an emailed statement, the group’s two inaugural truck-to-ship bunkering operations took place on the same day beginning of this week, serving “diverse clients and vessel types in Zeebrugge and Antwerp”.

The Madrid-based group, owned by French private equity firm InfraVia Capital Partners, did not provide further information regarding the operations.

Prior to these operations, Molgas secured an LNG bunkering permit valid for five years for both the port of Antwerp and Zeebrugge.

Johannes Richter, the group’s head of marine, said that the new permit “enables us to support the market development via our proven multi-truck-to-ship deliveries.”

This solution allows Molgas to unload in a range of about 80-200 metric tons in a “very good operational time as well on comparison to ship-to-ship deliveries.”

This Belgian move follows the completion of the company’s first LNG bunkering operation in France.

Molgas has significantly expanded its operations in the last three years, including the industrial sector, truck filling stations, and bunkering.

Back in 2021, the group completed a deal with LNG giant Shell to buy Norway’s Gasnor, and also acquired in 2022 a controlling stake in Greece’s Blue Grid.

Most recently, the group bought a 45 percent stake in Dutch LNG supplier Titan. This deal includes further follow-on rights from Molgas.

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Farmers from eastern European and Baltic countries – namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Bulgaria – joined forces on Thursday to protest against EU policies, with many of their governments either supporting the farmers or at least expressing their understanding.

In a joint memorandum seen by Euractiv, the Agrarian Chambers of these countries reject any limits on the size of agricultural production, call for the cancellation of the EU-Ukraine duty-free agreement and call for the simplification of the rules of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The basic instructions of the protests are that farmers should drive tractors and other agricultural equipment to border crossings to meet colleagues from other countries.

The main focus of the action will be the Czech-Slovak border, where representatives of the Czech Chamber of Agriculture, the Slovak Chamber of Agriculture and Food and the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture will meet and give speeches.

The protest is being supported – in any form – by farmers from Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovenia.

“The fact that today farmers are protesting throughout the European Union is clear evidence that it is essential to address the redefinition of the terms of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy,” the joint memorandum of agrarian chambers reads.

The farmers’ organisations agreed on several demands, mainly addressed to the European Commission.

Firstly, they reject any compulsory limitation on the scale of agricultural production and call for “the abolition of all legislation that in any way disadvantages European farmers vis-à-vis third-country farmers”. Farmers support the introduction of mirror clauses to prevent imports of goods that do not meet EU standards.

They also call on the EU Commission to carry out an impact assessment when introducing new rules.

Secondly, farmers are calling for the cancellation or substantial modification of the EU-Ukraine trade liberalisation agreement.

“An import tax must be imposed on Ukrainian production, for the duration of the war conflict, in the form of a refundable deposit to be returned to traders when goods are shipped outside European markets,” agrarian chambers claim. They also proposed to process all the surplus imported from Ukraine into biofuels.

Thirdly, farmers want simplification and a reduction in red tape. In particular, they call for a reduction in physical controls and the effective use of the satellite monitoring system. Farmers are also calling for the permanent abolition of three of the CAP’s “Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions” (GAEC) – GAEC 6, 7 and 8 – which lay down minimum soil cover, crop rotation and the minimum proportion of agricultural land to be set aside from production.

National governments back protests

Thursday’s protests are not against governments but directly against EU policies, unlike the demonstrations in France where farmers demanded concessions from the French government.

The governments of Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic are even supporting the farmers in their protests, or at least expressing understanding.

“I understand Thursday’s protests and the demands of farmers in some European countries,” Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný told Euractiv Czechia.

“I agree with farmers on the reduction of pointless and unnecessary bureaucracy. That is why, at the last Council of the EU meeting in Brussels, I tabled a separate point on behalf of the Czech Republic, in which we demanded that the European Commission amend the methodology for checks as soon as possible so that there would be significantly fewer of them,” Výborný said.

In Poland, too, the protests were mainly against EU policy, not the government’s agenda. Donald Tusk’s government has been very supportive of farmers, with Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski and his deputies regularly meeting with protesters.

While Siekierski is lobbying the EU Council on behalf of the farmers, Prime Minister Tusk has announced that, on his initiative, the protesters’ concerns will be discussed at the next European Council in March.

Words of support are also coming from the Slovak Minister of Agriculture, Richard Takác, who supports the protests and plans to attend them in person, despite not being invited by the Slovak Chamber of Agriculture and Food (SPPK).

“This protest is mainly aimed at the European Commission. Against the nonsense that the European Commission wants to adopt, against the various bureaucracy that turns farmers into officials,” Minister Richard Takáč said on social media a few days ago.

Slovak agrarian organisations were also in agreement. “The EU policies are too ambitious and unrealistic and have not been communicated with us in any way,” said Andrej Gajdoš, the deputy chairman of the SPPK.

Poland blames Commissioner Wojciechowski

With Poland holding the agriculture portfolio in Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission, there have been calls in both government and opposition for European Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski to be removed from his post.

Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who, like Wojciechowski in the distant past, led the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL, EPP), accused Wojciechowski of supporting the European Green Deal against the interests of Polish farmers and called on him to resign.

Wojciechowski refused to resign, arguing that commissioners should not take instructions from their national governments or parties.

He also said that no farmers’ organisation wanted his dismissal, and Euractiv’s talks with farmers generally confirmed that they were satisfied with the commissioner’s performance.

The call for Wojciechowski’s resignation is “incomprehensible”, Jacek Zarzecki of the Polish Union of Agricultural Producers told Euractiv. He recalled that Wojciechowski was the only member of the Commission to oppose the continuation of liberalised trade rules with Ukraine.

Slovak farmers make no mention of Janusz Wojciechowski. On the other hand, the SPPK criticised a former EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Frans Timmermans, saying it was he who “came up with this green mess, ran away and left it on the shoulders of the Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič who now needs to deal with it”.

Timmermans is often mentioned by Czech agricultural representatives, who also oppose the environmental and climate requirements of the European Green Deal.

As for Wojciechowski, the Czech agriculture minister hopes that he will push forward demands related to excessive bureaucracy.

Indeed, the EU Commission is expected to present a non-paper on simplifying agricultural policy on Thursday. However, the date of publication could be subject to change and its specific content is also unclear.

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Iran has provided Russia with a large number of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, six sources revealed, deepening the military cooperation between the two US-sanctioned countries.

Iran’s provision of around 400 missiles includes many from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, such as the Zolfaghar, three Iranian sources said. This road-mobile missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of between 300 and 700 km, experts say.

Iran’s defence ministry and the Revolutionary Guards – an elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile programme – declined to comment. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shipments began in early January after a deal was finalised in meetings late last year between Iranian and Russian military and security officials that took place in Tehran and Moscow, one of the Iranian sources said.

An Iranian military official – who, like the other sources, asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information – said there had been at least four shipments of missiles and there would be more in the coming weeks. He declined to provide further details.

Another senior Iranian official said some of the missiles were sent to Russia by ship via the Caspian Sea, while others were transported by plane.

“There will be more shipments,” the second Iranian official said. “There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to.”

UN Security Council restrictions on Iran’s export of some missiles, drones and other technologies expired in October. However, the United States and European Union retained sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme amid concerns over exports of weapons to its proxies in the Middle East and to Russia.

A fourth source, familiar with the matter, confirmed that Russia had received a large number of missiles from Iran recently, without providing further details.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in early January the United States was concerned that Russia was close to acquiring short-range ballistic weapons from Iran, in addition to missiles already sourced from North Korea.

A US official told Reuters that Washington had seen evidence of talks actively advancing but no indication yet of deliveries having taken place.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the missile deliveries.

Ukraine’s top prosecutor said on Friday the ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea to Russia had proven unreliable on the battlefield, with only two of 24 hitting their targets. Moscow and Pyongyang have both denied that North Korea has provided Russia with munitions used in Ukraine.

By contrast, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said the Fateh-110 family of missiles and the Zolfaghar were precision weapons.

“They are used to point at things that are high value and need precise damage,” said Lewis, adding that 400 munitions could inflict considerable harm if used in Ukraine. He noted, however, that Russian bombardments were already “pretty brutal”.

A Ukrainian military source told Reuters that Kyiv had not registered any use of Iranian ballistic missiles by Russian forces in the conflict. The Ukrainian defence ministry did not immediately reply to Reuters’ request for comment.

Following the publication of this story, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force told national television that it had no official information on Russia obtaining such missiles. He said that ballistic missiles would pose a serious threat to Ukraine.

Former Ukrainian defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk said that Russia wanted to supplement its missile arsenal at a time when delays in approving a major package of US military aid in Congress has left Ukraine short of ammunition and other material.

“The lack of US support means shortages of ground-based air defence in Ukraine. So they want to accumulate a mass of rockets and break through Ukrainian air defence,” said Zagorodnyuk, who chairs the Kyiv-based Centre for Defence Strategies, a security think tank, and advises the government.

Kyiv has repeatedly asked Tehran to stop supplying Shahed drones to Russia, which have become a staple of Moscow’s long-range assaults on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, alongside an array of missiles.

Ukraine’s air force said in December that Russia had launched 3,700 Shahed drones during the war, which can fly hundreds of kilometres and explode on impact. Ukrainians call them “mopeds” because of the distinctive sound of their engines; air defences down dozens of them each week.

Iran initially denied supplying drones to Russia but months later said it had provided a small number before Moscow launched the war on Ukraine in 2022.

“Those who accuse Iran of providing weapons to one of the sides in the Ukraine war are doing so for political purposes,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday, when asked about Tehran’s delivery of drones to Russia. “We have not given any drones to take part in that war.”

Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank, said a supply of Fateh-100 and Zolfaghar missiles from Iran would hand Russia an even greater advantage on the battlefield.

“They could be used to strike military targets at operational depths, and ballistic missiles are more difficult for Ukrainian air defences to intercept,” Lee said.

Read more with Euractiv

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