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U.S. sanctions against Russia’s oil exports and trade should not hinder Russian energy trade with India, Russia’s first deputy energy minister, Pavel Sorokin, said on Tuesday.

Indian refiners are scrambling for alternatives after the U.S. sanctions designated hundreds of tankers, as well as oil traders, last month.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the bans on Russian oil in the West, India has become a key buyer of Russian crude, alongside China. Russia, for its part, became the single biggest oil supplier to India, the world’s third-largest oil importer.

Now the sanctions have reduced the availability of non-sanctioned tankers to carry out the trades.

For India, which imports more than 80% of the crude it consumes daily, the costs are spiking and the cheap Russian barrels are disappearing as Indian refiners steer clear of tankers explicitly sanctioned by the U.S.

“We believe energy trade shouldn’t be hindered by any politics,” Russia’s Sorokin told the audience at the India Energy Week conference on Tuesday.

“Our relationship with India is based on economic pragmatism,” Sorokin said, as carried by Reuters.

It is too early to assess the impact of the U.S. sanctions on the Russia-India oil trade, the Russian official added.

“More time is needed to assess these things, but we believe that constructive relationships will continue to be successful,” Sorokin was quoted as saying.

For now, India has received clarification from the U.S. that the Russian oil tankers sanctioned last month are allowed to discharge their crude at Indian ports until February 27.

While the U.S. clarification could be a relief for India for this month, it is not certain how trade will proceed going forward.

Indian refiners are already scrambling for supply for arrival after February.

India will continue to buy Russian oil if it is sold below the $60 per barrel price cap and delivered on non-sanctioned tankers and without any involvement of sanctioned companies or individuals, Indian officials have said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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BP (NYSE: BP) on Tuesday pledged to fundamentally reset its strategy as it booked its lowest annual and quarterly profits in years and seeks to push up its stock performance and regain investor trust.

“Building on the actions taken in the past 12 months, we now plan to fundamentally reset our strategy and drive further improvements in performance, all in service of growing cash flow and returns,” BP’s chief executive Murray Auchincloss said in a statement as the UK-based supermajor reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results today.

BP’s leadership will communicate its new strategy, which “will be a new direction for bp”, at a Capital Markets Update on February 26, Auchincloss added.

The executive, who took over as BP’s CEO after the abrupt resignation of Bernard Looney, has already vowed to make the supermajor a simpler and far more focused company and has cut some investments in renewables.

Analysts and investors expect even more cuts to the low-carbon business and a pledge to boost oil and gas production at the capital markets day later this month.

Shell and Equinor have already announced significant reductions in their commitment to renewable energy.

BP’s stock has been underperforming its UK-based peer, Shell, in recent years and Auchincloss and the board have been under increased pressure to seek fundamental changes to the business to reward shareholders more.

The pressure became more intense earlier this week after reports emerged that activist investor Elliott Management had bought a stake in BP and would be pushing for changes in strategy, or even for board reshuffles.

Meanwhile, BP on Tuesday reported an underlying replacement cost profit – its proxy for net profit – of $1.17 billion for the fourth quarter, down from $2.27 billion for the previous quarter, and down from $3 billion a year earlier.

The Q4 2024 earnings missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.26 billion and were the lowest quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 2020 when the pandemic was hitting global oil demand. BP attributed the lower profit to weaker realized refining margins – as flagged last month – as well as higher impact from turnaround activity, seasonally lower customer volumes, and fuel margins.

Today BP announced a $1.75 billion share buyback program related to the fourth quarter results which will be executed prior to reporting the first-quarter results.

BP will announce its full 2025 buyback and capex guidance at the capital markets day on February 26.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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ENB Pub Note: This is the third article in a series from George McMillan about the Ukraine/Russia conflict and a potential end with Keith Kellogg’s plan, which is DOA. There are many reasons, but one critical reason is the stripped information on the Biden-Harris administration on land vs. sea power and energy. 

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Understanding the Risk to Be Avoided

Performing MDMP SWOT risk to mission, the catastrophic downside risk that must be avoided is that the Legacy media blame Trump for losing: (a) the Ukrainian War, (b) letting the EU collapse economically, and (c) letting the populist parties rise to power in Europe and oust NATO.

This combination could lead to the Democrats winning the House and the Senate in the 2026 midterms and impeaching Trump halfway through his presidential term.

That could pave the way for the Democrats to win the White House and retain the House and the Senate in the 2028 election cycle, bring back mass censorship and lawfaring of Trump supporters, reverse the D.O.G.E. streamlining of government, and the WEF Globalists would achieve the single-party socialist state in the United States.

The Present Post-Global War on Terror (GWOT) Reality

The reality is that the Brzezinski/Wolfowitz/RAND strategy has completely backfired and created the present conditions where (1) the Catholic Ukrainians are at war with the Orthodox Russian-speaking Ukrainians; (2) Russians are winning the war in the predominantly Orthodox Christian Russian-speaking areas of the Donbas; (3) Europe is cut off from affordable Russian natural gas and the European automotive and consumer goods industries are collapsing while the cost of living is declining as inflation is rising; (4) the populist parties wish to oust the Globalist WEF backed EU and legacy ruling class politicians in Europe, who in turn want to oust the WEF Globalist EU and NATO institutions; (5) would jettison the Petrodollar and begin purchasing Russian natural gas via pipeline if the US does not ease sanctions, and (6) oust the Green new deal leftist politicians and policies as well and restart their nuclear plants as well to ease energy prices in Europe.

Putin’s Best Interest is to Maintain the Present Course

It is in Putin’s best interest to delay negotiations on the Ukraine War for as long as possible let the energy prices continue to soar and let the British and European economies continue to collapse. Why would Putin change his course of action now and save the EU politicians and NATO?

The Brzezinksi/Wolfowitz/RAND/WEF Globalist Strategies Have Failed

The blame needs to be properly placed on the Brzezinski/Wolfowitz/RAND strategies of the WEF Globalists.

The objective is to avoid catastrophic downside risk and facilitate the Republicans keeping both Houses of Congress through the 2026 midterm elections to further the effort of President Trump and the streamlining effort of the D.O.G.E.

Understanding the Risk to Be Avoided

Performing MDMP SWOT risk to mission, the catastrophic downside risk that must be avoided is that the Legacy media blame Trump for losing: (a) the Ukrainian War, (b) letting the EU collapse economically, and (c) letting the populist parties rise to power in Europe and oust NATO.

This combination could lead to the Democrats winning the House and the Senate in the 2026 midterms and impeaching Trump halfway through his presidential term.

That could pave the way for the Democrats to win the White House and retain the House and the Senate in the 2028 election cycle, bring back mass censorship and lawfaring of Trump supporters, reverse the D.O.G.E. streamlining of government, and the WEF Globalists would achieve the single-party socialist state in the United States.

The Present Post-Global War on Terror (GWOT) Reality

The reality is that the Brzezinski/Wolfowitz/RAND strategy has completely backfired and created the present conditions where (1) the Catholic Ukrainians are at war with the Orthodox Russian-speaking Ukrainians; (2) Russians are winning the war in the predominantly Orthodox Christian Russian-speaking areas of the Donbas; (3) Europe is cut off from affordable Russian natural gas and the European automotive and consumer goods industries are collapsing while the cost of living is declining as inflation is rising; (4) the populist parties wish to oust the Globalist WEF backed EU and legacy ruling class politicians in Europe, who in turn want to oust the WEF Globalist EU and NATO institutions; (5) would jettison the Petrodollar and begin purchasing Russian natural gas via pipeline if the US does not ease sanctions, and (6) oust the Green new deal leftist politicians and policies as well and restart their nuclear plants as well to ease energy prices in Europe.

Putin’s Best Interest is to Maintain the Present Course

It is in Putin’s best interest to delay negotiations on the Ukraine War for as long as possible let the energy prices continue to soar and let the British and European economies continue to collapse. Why would Putin change his course of action now and save the EU politicians and NATO?

The Brzezinksi/Wolfowitz/RAND/WEF Globalist Strategies Have Failed

The blame needs to be properly placed on the Brzezinski/Wolfowitz/RAND strategies of the WEF Globalists.

The objective is to avoid catastrophic downside risk and facilitate the Republicans keeping both Houses of Congress through the 2026 midterm elections to further the effort of President Trump and the streamlining effort of the D.O.G.E.

Recommendations

First, the Russo-Ukraine War is a sunk cost fallacy Ponzi Scheme. Russia has approximately a 7:1 KIA/WIA ratio over the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is best to end the sunk cost fallacy Ponzi scheme by not feeding anymore more Ukrainians into the Donbas meat grinder.

Secondly, Putin is not fighting a war for territorial expansion to restore the Soviet Empire as Western rhetoric maintains, instead, Putin is fighting a defensive war of attrition in the Russian Speaking Orthodox Christian regions of Ukraine in proximity to his only warm water port in Rostov-on-Don and to protect the Russian Black Sea Fleet that has been stationed in Crimea since 1783 when Catherine the Great defeated the Turks.

Thirdly, since the populist parties are winning the elections in the German Speaking World of Central Europe and the Slavic World in the Danube River Valley and want to rebuild Nordstream, restart their nuclear energy plants, and oust the WEF Globalist EU and donor-class politicians and the USAID/NED NATO and NGOs that support them, and if the European populists want to purchase Russian energy they will have to exit the Petrodollar also unless sanctions are eased.

Fourthly, the choice is to either (a) continue feeding the sunk cost fallacy Ponzi Scheme in the Donbas by feeding more Ukrainians into Russian artillery fire, while continuing the support of the WEF Globalist politicians in the EU and the donor class politicians in each country, which means (c) continuing the policies of the Biden Administration suppressing the populists, or (d) withdraw from the Ukrainian War as promised to the MAGA loyalists, and support the Populist Politicians in ousting the WEF Globalist backed EU and the donor class politicians throughout the UK and Europe.

If option (d) is taken it would feed the MAGA base in the US and merge the MAGA base with the Populists in Europe that are currently being censored, lawfared and dealing with USAID/NED/WEF color revolutions similar to the censorship and Antifa-BLM color revolution of the 2020 US elections. If option (d) is taken the populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic would love President Trump. The MAGA and European populists could then form a new trading bloc to replace the EU and NATO.

The Risk to the Mission is Always the Fake News Media

This brings about the risk to the mission of the legacy media lambasting President Trump before the midterms and taking both Houses in the 2026 elections cycle, and possibly all three Houses in the 2028 general election cycle.

But that can be avoided if the failure of the Brzezinski/Wolfowitz/RAND geopolitical strategy is properly articulated to the public.

The public is already excited by the closure of USAID, it should be followed up by closing down and exposing the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Globalist NGOs that it funds.

That would entail everyone in the cabinet to understand what the Brzezinski/Wolfowitz/RAND geopolitical strategy is and overcome three decades of Gloalist rhetoric and fake news. But this is better than continuing to feed the Ukraine Ponzi Scheme with more Ukrainian bodies and better than supporting the WEF Globalists candidates over the populist candidates. That would severely disappoint the populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

Part 1: Why Keith Kellogg’s Plan is DOA: Avoiding the Catastrophic Downside Risk of Russo-Ukraine Negotiations

Part 2: Why Keith Kellogg’s Plan is DOA: Shifting the Global Political Center of Gravity Part 2

Other Stories and Podcasts from George McMillan on Energy News Beat 

 

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Kiev resells up to half of Western military aid on black markets, the American journalist has claimed

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MADRID – The complex global geopolitical context following the return to power of US President Donald Trump calls for “a more ambitious and bolder European budget” of “at least” 2% of annual GDP, Pedro Sánchez’s government said in a statement on Monday.

Pedro Sánchez’s governing coalition (PSOE/S&D, Sumar) has drawn up a strategic document urging the EU to multiply–at least–by two times the budget to better face Trump’s ‘trade war’ and its defence challenges, among others.

Specifically, Sánchez wants the EU to increase its spending “at least to an annual amount of 2% of GDP”, which is double the Union’s ordinary budget, according to RTVE and El País.

According to Spanish media, Sánchez could soon present his particular ‘European Compass’ to the EU executive and his partners in Brussels.

Madrid’s objective is to strengthen European resilience in the face of the harsh measures announced by Trump, which, among others, include tariffs of 25 per cent on all steel and aluminium imports, which also affect the sector in the EU.

One of Madrid’s objectives is to increase the EU’s competitiveness vis-à-vis, among others, China and the United States to better face the challenge of the ecological and digital transitions.

“Security and defence, but also the fight against climate change, energy interconnections, technological development and scientific programmes are European issues and, as such, require European funding. The reports by (Mario) Draghi and (Enrico) Letta have already pointed in this direction”, the statement reads.

The Draghi report, presented by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi last September, warns that the EU will need an extensive increase in investment to digitise and decarbonise the economy and increase its defence capacity to € 800 billion a year if it is to remain competitive with Washington and Beijing.

On the other hand, Madrid points out that another strategic sector – defence – also needs more spending, and not only in relation to direct military threats, including the war in Ukraine, but also to new challenges to European security.

“European security is not only about military threats. It is also cyber-attacks, climate change, terrorism and the fight against mafias and drug trafficking. These aspects require other types of interventions and resources that are not military”, Sánchez’s government points out.

Spain currently spends 1.8 per cent of its GDP on defence and has committed to reaching 2 per cent by 2029. However, this is still a long way from the 5 percent that Trump is demanding from NATO allies.

Joint debt financing

To try to achieve the objectives proposed in the document, Spain suggests the creation of a “joint debt mechanism”, and asks that the debt of the European Next Generation funds be refinanced for another 10 years to continue making “major investments”, according to the text of the communiqué quoted by the media.

The European bloc is expected to begin negotiations on the 2028-2034 multiannual budget shortly, and it is precisely at this time that Spain – whose economy is growing above the Eurozone average – wants to exert its influence to increase the bloc’s financial endowment.

Madrid’s proposal is likely to be rejected by the so-called ‘frugal’ EU countries, including the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden, which have on several occasions made clear their disagreement with increased EU spending being financed by common debt and instead propose, among other measures, cuts in social policies.

(Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es)

Source: Euractiv.com

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Hilong announced in a statement last month that its offshore engineering unit secured the offshore platform transportation and installation contract for the second phase of Eni’s Congo LNG project.

According to the group, the contract is worth more than 400 million yuan ($54.7 million).

The contract value is expected to be more than RMB 400 million. Hilong Offshore & Marine has more than RMB 4 billion orders in hand.

Hilomg did not provide further details regarding the contact.

The firm only said that the contract marks a continuation of its cooperation with Eni.

In November last year, China’s Wison New Energies launched the hull of Eni’s Congo FLNG at its yard in Nantong, China. Eni will name the FLNG Nguya.

WNE won a contract from Italy’s Eni in December 2022 to build the 380 meters long 2.4 mtpa FLNG and officially started work on the project in January 2023.

The new FLNG will serve Eni’s project in the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, which will reach an overall LNG production capacity of 3 million tons per year, or about 4.5 billion cubic meters/year, from 2025.

Eni expects Congo LNG’s Phase 2 startup by the end of 2025.

The FLNG will complement the existing Tango FLNG, which launched operations in December 2023.

In February last year, Eni shipped the first LNG cargo from its Tango FLNG moored in Congolese waters and this shipment arrived at Snam’s FSRU-based facility in Piombino in April.

The Italian firm purchased the 144 meters long Tango FLNG from Belgium’s Exmar and chartered the 2002-built steam turbine LNG carrier, Excalibur, to serve as an FSU for the project.

The floating LNG producer, delivered in 2017 by WNE, has a liquefaction capacity of about 1 billion cubic meters per year of gas, or 0.6 mtpa, and a storage capacity of 16,100 cbm.

Exmar recently said that Tango FLNG is producing LNG above the guaranteed levels.

“The tests have proven that the actual production of LNG has exceeded the guaranteed levels, with an adjusted annual equivalent production in excess of 0.6 million tons per annum,” the company said.

As previously reported, the agreement for the sale and purchase of Tango FLNG contains a price adjustment clause related to the performance of the unit.

This includes “a negative correction of $78 million and a bonus of a maximum of $44 million,” Exmar said.

“Based on the production data, Exmar has concluded that it is entitled to a bonus, amount of which is not yet agreed,” Exmar said.

Source: Lngprime.com

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A consortium led by Elon Musk announced Monday that it has offered €94.5 billion ($97.4 billion) to acquire the nonprofit overseeing OpenAI, marking the latest move in the billionaire’s efforts to prevent the AI startup from shifting to a for-profit model.

Musk’s bid is expected to escalate ongoing tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the ChatGPT maker’s direction as a leader in generative AI. In response, Altman posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit but departed before its rise to prominence. In 2023, he launched xAI, a rival artificial intelligence venture.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He contributed over €242 billion ($250 million) to support Trump’s election and currently heads the Department of Government Efficiency, a newly established White House division focused on dramatically reducing the federal bureaucracy.

Recently, Musk criticised a €484 bilion ($500 billion) OpenAI-led initiative unveiled by Trump at the White House. Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity, arguing that the shift is necessary to attract the investment required for advancing its AI models.

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