🔹A massive demonstration of 50,000 people took place in Chisinau🇲🇩, the capital of Moldova today.

🔹A few hours ago, policemen 👮‍♂️violently dismantled a tent gathering, in front of the parliament building and the presidential administration. The protesters chanted: "We do not give up", "Down with Maia Sandu.". The Police said that they recorded numerous violations.

🔹 Last weekend also, Up to 60,000 people demonstrators marched through the 🇲🇩 capital demanding the resignation of President Maia Sandu.

🔹Moldova’s underequipped and understaffed Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is struggling to file documents because it doesn’t have enough printing paper 📄.

Video compilation courtesy Telegram reports.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠 Last month, several thousand people protested in the Moldovan 🇲🇩 capital Chisinau due to high price increases 📈 for energy. The organizers said that many buses with protesters were not allowed into the capital by the police.

🔹A colder-than-average winter ⛄️ forecast & high energy prices will raise heating costs for U.S. consumers. US 🇺🇸 Henry Hub natural gas averages $6.40 per MMBtu, which is 36% higher than last winter’s average. Nearly half of all U.S. households heat primarily with natural gas.

🔹Working natural gas inventories by end of October are forecast to be 6% below the previous five-year average. U.S. natural gas storage injections usually take place from April through October.

🔹Average heating oil expenditures had already been higher in the U.S. as oil 🛢 use is concentrated in the colder Northeast, where 18% of households use it as their primary heating energy. Overall, just 4 percent of the U.S. heats with oil.

🔹GE plans to make major job cuts in its U.S. wind operations and will consider its other markets too as windfarms 🪫are proving to be a major expense. Continued supply chain disruption and the high cost of wind turbines are deterring companies from investing 📉 in wind energy.

🔹China 🇨🇳 told state-owned natural gas importers to halt LNG 🚢 reselling to Europe. Beijing looks to protect domestic gas supplies for the winter. They threw a lifeline to Europe amid its energy crisis by reselling unneeded LNG purchased from Russia.

🔹In the first 9 months of 2022, Russian LNG exports to Europe 🇪🇺 increased 1.5X. LNG is proving to be an effective tool for diversifying Russian🇷🇺 gas exports, primarily due to the lack of dependence on transiters & one final buyer.

Last reported on this channel:

💠Chinese 🇨🇳 companies that signed long-term contracts to buy U.S. 🇺🇸 LNG are selling the excess & making millions per cargo 🚢.

💠 Sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 + Europe LNG/oil 📈 demand drive tanker rates to record highs.

💠 Russia is selling LNG 🚢 from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount & the operating company, is still making a profit.

💠Malaysia - 🇲🇾 Petronas declares force majeure on contracted LNG deliveries to Japan 🇯🇵, due to leaking pipeline.

🔹Media blackout of multiple protests 🔥 called the " ‘Day of Justice / Jour De La Justice’ ", yesterday (Oct 16th) in Brussels, Belgium🇧🇪. No mainstream media coverage & no articles showing up in internet searches. One Youtuber managed to record a livestream.

🔹Protests are against skyrocketing 📈 electricity, natural gas, food prices & to draw attention to the sharp hike in the cost of living. Protesters are concerned that they might not be able to afford their electricity 💡& gas bills, which doubled over the last year. Protesters representing many other EU countries were in the protests also.

Video compilation courtesy Telegram and Twitter.

Previously reported on this channel:

💠 Last month massive protests by trade unions broke out across Belgium🇧🇪.

💠 Firewood 🪵 & wood pellet prices drastically increase across Belgium.

💠 High gas prices forces stainless steel 🏭 producer Aperam to shut down its production facility in Genk, Belgium 🇧🇪, along with other manufactures of fertilizer etc.

🔹Russia’s 🇷🇺 nuclear fuel industry remains conspicuously untouched by European 🇪🇺 sanctions. Shipments 🚢 of Russian nuclear fuel continue to Europe.

🔹Hungary 🇭🇺 & Bulgaria 🇧🇬 were the most vocal in opposing sanctions on Russian uranium. There are 18 Russian nuclear reactors 🏭 in Europe. The EU has a port access ban on Russian-flagged 🇷🇺🚢 vessels for the transport of nuclear fuel.

🔹Japan 🇯🇵 is now considering extending its 60 year limit on the operation of nuclear plants. Germany 🇩🇪 reverses closure plan for 2 nuclear reactors, uranium mining shares price increase.

Video: Recent Russia/Hungary nuclear power plants report.

Last reported nuclear dev. on this channel:

💠Russia's 🇷🇺 Rosatom & Hungary, 🇭🇺 discuss licenses for the Paks-2 nuclear power plant construction 🏗.

💠France's EDF is rushing to get nuclear power stations 🏭 online. 20 of 56 offline due to strikes & corrosion issues.

💠The French 🇫🇷 gov't to fully nationalize the EDF. which runs a 29 billion Euro loss.

The de-industrialisation of Germany - Part 1.

In Germany 🇩🇪, today, due to rising 📈 energy / raw material prices & supply chain bottlenecks:

🔹Textile supplier for vehicles 🚗, Borgers SE & Co. KGaA filed for bankruptcy after 156 yrs in business.

🔹One of the largest soap 🧴manufacturers in Europe, Kappus, declares bankruptcy, being in operation since 1848.

🔹Bodeta Süßwaren GmbH confectionery 🍬 founded in 1892, filed for bankruptcy.

🔹Construction 🪚🔨🪜 co. Wolff Hoch- und Ingenieurbau file for bankruptcy after 125 yrs due to bottlenecks in personnel & material.

🔹Bakery 🥐 🍞chain Thilmann Brot GmbH, founded in 1937, declares bankruptcy.

🔹Electricity blackout 🪫 fries computer servers at kitchen designer Einbauküchen Solutions GmbH. This forced the 60 yr old co. into bankruptcy.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Steel 🏭 manufacturers shut down across Europe.

💠European ammonia fertilizer plants shut down due to lack of Russian 🇷🇺 natural gas.

🔹USA 🇺🇸- Biden admin. plans to release 10-15 million barrels of crude 🛢 from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to suppress gasoline & diesel ⛽️ prices. 180 million barrels have been drained from the SPR since May.

🔹Accusations from top Biden admin. officials against the Saudi 🇸🇦 gov't result in OPEC+ member states, to publicly endorse the oil production cut agreed upon this month.

🔹US 🇺🇸 anti-trust legislation (NOPEC Bill) awaiting approvals. It can be used to point to Saudi 🇸🇦 Aramco as being collusive in price-fixing through adjusting output to manage oil prices.

💠 OPEC+ defends their role in 🛢 oil market stability at JMMC of the OPEC+ group HQ 🇦🇹.

💠 US/EU oil price cap plan on Russian 🇷🇺 oil can backfire.

💠 The US 🇺🇸 reviewing its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

💠 UAE's 🇦🇪 President Al Nahyan visits Russia, President Putin reaffirms OPEC+ decision not directed against anyone.

🔹Several dozen LNG 🚢 tankers are waiting near the Spanish 🇪🇸 coast for permission to unload their cargo. Only six connections for regasification are available at local gas terminals in Spain this week.

🔹Spain 🇪🇸 is home to 45% of EU’s 🇪🇺 LNG regasification capacity & storage is nearly full. It's lack of pipelines prevents it from supplying northern European countries.

🔹China's 🇨🇳 weak domestic LNG demand & high spot prices may come as a relief for Europe's LNG prices.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 China 🇨🇳 told state-owned natural gas importers to halt LNG 🚢 reselling to Europe.

💠 Chinese companies, buy U.S. 🇺🇸 LNG & sell the excess at profit 🚢.

💠 Sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 + Europe LNG/oil 📈 demand drive tanker rates to record highs.

💠 Russia is selling LNG 🚢 from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount, & is still making a profit.

💠 Malaysia - 🇲🇾 Petronas declares force majeure on contracted LNG deliveries to Japan 🇯🇵, due to leaking pipeline.

🔹EU 🇪🇺 leaders have failed to agree on a gas price cap following a summit in Brussels, 🇧🇪. They are now suggesting that the EU’s joint purchasing power should be used as leverage in negotiations with global suppliers of gas.

🔹The EU's plan to cap natural gas prices could swipe supplies away from Europe, German 🇩🇪 Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned. "The EU must coordinate closely with other gas consumers like Japan 🇯🇵 so as not to be competition with each other," he said.

Video: Courtesy Aljazeera

Previously reported on this channel:

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 has warned that a gas price cap can result in gas flows cut-off.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 would not support a price cap on Russian gas.

💠 LNG deliveries to Japan 🇯🇵 from Malaysia's 🇲🇾 Petronas cut upon force majeure, due to leaking pipeline. Malaysia's Bintulu LNG terminal is one of the largest LNG facilities 🏭 in a single location in the world.

💠 German 🇩🇪 households & small businesses raised their natural gas consumption in Sept.

🔹India’s 🇮🇳 Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is considering increasing its stake in the new Russian 🇷🇺 entity that will manage the Sakhalin-1 energy project. ONGC holds a stake in the project through its overseas investment arm, ONGC Videsh. The Sakhalin-1 project accounted for about a quarter of ONGC reserves of 124.7 million tons.

🔹🇺🇸 Exxon Mobil announced its exit from the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas venture. India 🇮🇳 increased its Russian Urals crude 🛢purchases by 13.5 times year-on-year in the first eight months of 2022.

Previous reports on this channel:

💠 Russia’s 🇷🇺 Sakhalin-1 oil 🛢 & gas project, will be transferred to a local entity. The same was done for the Sakhalin- 2 project earlier.

💠 India's 🇮🇳 de-dollarization news post the SCO Summit.

💠Russia🇷🇺 has significantly increased exports of fertilizers to India, 🇮🇳 after both countries finalized a barter agreement in May.

💠 Russia is selling LNG 🚢 from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount & is still making a profit.

🔹Norway's 🇳🇴 Yara International announced yesterday, that Q3 2022 ammonia output was slashed due to skyrocketing natural gas 📈 prices.

🔹Ammonia output in the quarter dropped 📉 to 57% of capacity in Europe 🇪🇺.

🔹Western sanctions on Moscow 🇷🇺 inhibiting gas flows from Russia, & the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage 🧨 has caused a massive squeeze on natural gas.

Previous fertilizer posts on this channel:

💠 UN 🇺🇳 spoke with EU 🇪🇺 leaders about lifting sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports. Russia 🇷🇺 wants to give 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizers stuck at EU ports to poor countries free of charge.

💠 Fertilizer manufacturing 🏭 shutdown across Europe.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer manufacturers to shut down in Germany🇩🇪, Lithuania 🇱🇹 & Poland 🇵🇱.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer producers in Norway🇳🇴 , Austria 🇦🇹 & UK 🇬🇧 cut production.

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 blocked from shipping fertilizers to poor countries for free.

💠 Belarus' 🇧🇾 president warn that sanctions will lead to global food crisis.

🔹The amount of diesel stored in northwest 🇪🇺 Europe will sink to 210.4 million barrels by Feb. 2023, the lowest since 2011 — consultancy Wood Mackenzie. That’s the month that EU sanctions on Russian🇷🇺 seaborne 🚢 refined oil products come into effect.

🔹The front-month East-West swap, a measure of the premium for diesel in Europe over Asia, widened to $60.50 a ton. It averaged $7.40 a ton in 2021.

🔹A sharp slump in diesel ⛽️ reserves across the EU is expected this winter once the ban on exports of Russian 🇷🇺 crude oil 🛢 comes into effect. The situation could become even worse due to recent strikes at French refineries 🏭, which have halted fuel production.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Diesel and petrol ⛽️ stations in parts of France 🇫🇷 are running out of fuel due to worker strikes at 🏭 oil refineries.

💠 The German 🇩🇪 gov't confiscates Russia's 🇷🇺 state-owned Rosneft's assets in order to control the PCK Schwedt oil refinery 🏭 to maintain diesel supply for Germany.

🔹US 🇺🇸 diesel market demand is surging while supplies remain at the lowest seasonal level for this time of year ever, with just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008.

🔹American refiners 🏭 are enjoying the best-ever diesel margins, with the profit of turning a barrel of crude into one of diesel - i.e., the diesel crack spread 💰 - hitting a record high 📈 of $86.5 per barrel, up roughly 450% from the 2000-2020 average of $15.7 per barrel.

The reasons for the collapse in inventories & the price surge are four-fold.

📌 Local diesel ⛽️ demand has recovered quicker than gasoline & jet-fuel from the impact of pandemic lockdowns.

📌 American diesel exports 🚢 running at unusually high level.

📌 The US also has lower refining 📉 capacity than before.

📌 The US was importing a significant amount of Russian 🇷🇺 fuel oil before sanctions, which its Gulf of Mexico-based refiners turned into diesel.

🔹Türkiye 🇹🇷 lambasts the US 🇺🇸 for ‘bullying’ it's own ally. Rather than threatening the Saudis 🇸🇦 over oil 🛢prices, the US should lift sanctions on Iran 🇮🇷 and Venezuela 🇻🇪, Türkiye's FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu says.

🔹“The bullying against Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦is inappropriate. We are going through similar challenges in energy prices but we don’t threaten anyone.

Video source - Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu & Ulusal Kanal.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠 US 🇺🇸 accuses the KSA of siding with Russia. Options are being reviewed for what actions should be taken against the Kingdom 🇸🇦

💠 US 🇺🇸 anti-trust legislation (NOPEC Bill) awaiting approvals. It can be used to point to Saudi 🇸🇦 Aramco as being collusive in price-fixing through adjusting output to manage oil prices.

💠 OPEC+ defends their role in 🛢 oil market stability at JMMC of the OPEC+ group HQ 🇦🇹.

💠Saboteurs attempt to blow up 🧨 Turkstream Pipeline infrastructure. President Putin has proposed building a major gas hub in Türkiye 🇹🇷

🔹Police 🚓 brutalities continue amid a breakout of protests in Moldova 🇲🇩. Reports of protestors and police clashes. Moldovans for months, have been protesting inflated 📈 prices for gas, electricity, water & other utilities.

🔹Protestors highlight the injustice of police 👮‍♂️ by setting up tents at the General Prosecutor's Office. Reports of a false flag by police, trying to frame protestors as attacking a journalist. Estimated 90,000 turnout.

🔹Despite western media blackout of these protests 🔥, there was a live video streamed on YouTube.

Video compilation courtesy Moldovan social media channels.

Previous Moldova protests reports on this channel:

💠 Last week Sunday, 50,000 protestors gathered across Chisinau🇲🇩, the capital of Moldova. Weekend before that 60,000 Moldovans protested.

💠 Thousands protest high energy prices during September in Chisinau. State-backed gas distributor Moldovagaz failed to fulfil wholesale payments to its sole gas supplier, Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom.

🔹Taiwan 🇹🇼 Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has suspended production of advanced silicon for Chinese 🇨🇳 startup Biren Technology to ensure compliance with US regulations.

🔹 U.S. 🇺🇸 embargo on China will likely have broad repercussions. The controls also barred U.S. citizens or entities from working with Chinese 🇨🇳 chipmakers without explicit approval. Chipmaker says listening to the US by banning China is bad for business.

🔹TSMC 🇹🇼 commands 20% of global wafer fabrication & 92% of advanced chip capacity.

🔹TSMC Q3 2022 profit rose 79.7% 📈 over a year earlier to a record $8.8 billion amid surging demand.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠 US bans exports 🚢 to China of equipment for 14nm chips.

💠South Korea 🇰🇷 attempts to assure China 🇨🇳 on supply chain amid US pressure.

💠 US 🇺🇸 share of semiconductor R&D has dropped drastically.

🔹A steady increase in the combined flow of Russian 🇷🇺 crude via ships to Turkey 🇹🇷, China🇨🇳 & India🇮🇳 in recent weeks. Time is running out to deliver crude from Russia’s before EU 🇪🇺sanctions deprive vessels of insurance & other services from Dec. 5.

🔹Trading houses & refiners are racing to book storage tanks in Rotterdam for when EU sanctions take effect. Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 & China 🇨🇳, jointly stressed the importance of stable long-term crude 🛢supply to the market.

🔹"Russia could largely evade the planned price cap on its oil..." — U.S. Treasury official. "There is a big enough shadow fleet 🚢 to continue Russian 🇷🇺 crude flows after Dec. 5" — Trafigura

🔹China's 🇨🇳 oil imports 🚢 from Russia soared 22% in September from a year earlier.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 OPEC+ defends their role in 🛢 oil market stability at JMMC of the OPEC+ group HQ 🇦🇹.

💠 US/EU oil price cap plan on Russian 🇷🇺 oil can backfire.

💠 Türkiye 🇹🇷 lambasts the US 🇺🇸 for bullying Saudi Arabia

🔹Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission 🇪🇺, sends shockwaves across Africa, Latin America & Asia. She revealed a task force to confiscate (steal) frozen Russian 🇷🇺 assets during a press conference on Ukraine 🇺🇦.

🔹This sets a precedence that no country's assets are safe in western jurisdictions & economic bullying will be used by the west.

🔹The EU 🇪🇺 just undermined ‘Lex Mercatoria’ (Latin – ‘Merchant Law’). The autonomous legal order of international economic relations for trade & rules for settling disputes. The west has now destroyed, how money & currencies function in relationship to trade & private property rights.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 SCO countries 🇷🇺🇨🇳🇮🇷🇮🇳🇵🇰🇰🇬🇰🇿🇹🇯🇺🇿 begin to shift trade transactions outside western currencies/payment systems

💠 BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 nations open to bypassing SWIFT using Russia's SPFS.

💠 China 🇨🇳& Russia 🇷🇺 reduces USD & Euro use for trade.

🔹Reports- Major 🇺🇸 US cellular providers and Apple's messaging service are experiencing disruptions. ⚠️ WhatsApp also experienced outages earlier today.

🔹Apple's iMessage 📱and FaceTime were down for a 30 〽️ minute period and is now restored. Google searches for "iMessage not working" spiked around noon.

🔹Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T customers started reporting disruptions around 1200 ET. Reports on Down Detector may be exaggerated for cellular providers as there is a possibility of iPhone users facing disruptions, reporting their cellular provider as down.

🔹German 🇩🇪 utility Uniper, today, reported a 4.8 billion euros ($4.78 billion) loss 📉 in the first 9 months of 2022, resulting in the loss of more than half of the company's registered share capital.

🔹Sanctions on Russian gas have pushed Uniper to purchase gas replacement at significantly higher market prices and accumulate losses.

🔹Uniper is shutting half the office space in its HQ & lowering 🌡 temperatures 🥶 in areas remaining open to save gas.

Video courtesy WION.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Electricity 🔌 provider Uniper 🇩🇪 to be nationalised and bailed out.

💠 Uniper increasing debt 📈 & low levels in Rhine river affect hydro-power plants / commodity transport 🚢.

💠 Uniper seeks gov't bailout as sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 result in higher gas prices.

💠 Uniper reducing storage volumes 📉 to maintain liquidity.

💠 Uniper began tapping into ⛄️winter gas storage to meet customer demand.

💠 German 🇩🇪 gov't attempted to pass new gas tax 💰to help Uniper.

🔹Russian 🇷🇺 energy major Gazprom announced that it will pay record dividends to shareholders. Its board had recommended a dividend payout to shareholders after bumper profits 📈 despite sanctions. The total volume of dividend paid out will exceed 1 trillion rubles (around $20 billion).

🔹Gazprom has begun operational tests on the Kovykta natural gas field 🏭 in eastern Siberia, bringing Russia a step closer to boosting energy exports to China 🇨🇳.

🔹Deliveries of Russian gas to Europe, transiting Ukraine 🇺🇦 continue at the same volumes of 42.4 mln cubic meters.

Video courtesy Sean Poo.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠Hungary 🇭🇺 has agreed with Gazprom to re-route gas transit.

💠Gazprom 🇷🇺 to finalize deals to develop projects in Iran.

💠 NordStream 1 & 2 pipeline 🧨 sabotage video report.

💠 Gazprom move payments for gas exports to China 🇨🇳 away from USD/Euros.

💠 Sanctions affect Gazprom's turbine ⚙️ maintenance resulting in Nord Stream 1 shut down.