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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  | 10/25/2021
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Surrendering to the Taliban and China all at the same time! Another unique "achievement" for the sleepy administration. 


Epoch Times (10/23/21) reports: "Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources held a forum on Oct. 22 to discuss how President Biden’s exit from Afghanistan left massive, untapped reserves of rare earth metals, lithium, and other vital minerals in the Taliban’s hands, potentially opening them up to exploitation by China. Speakers said the Biden administration has simultaneously worked to hinder key mining projects in the United States, such as Minnesota’s Twin Metals copper-nickel project and Arizona’s Resolution copper mine, which would allow the United States to produce many of those minerals at home, thereby avoiding dependence on the Taliban or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)...Mary Hutzler, a distinguished fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, described the scale of the United States’ dependence on Chinese mineral resources for its renewable energy infrastructure, which dwarfs our past reliance on foreign oil before the United States achieved energy independence under President Donald Trump. 'Our reliance on China is about 80 percent for these minerals right now, where the high for us in 2001 on oil from the Middle East was 23 percent,' she said. 'We’re going to be four times as dependent on China as we were on the Middle East.'"

"The real risk here is of a political nature...[climate disclosure mandates] could open the door to unelected, unaccountable financial regulators misusing their powers to choke off capital to energy companies and weaken the economy."

 

– Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

While President Biden asks Russia and OPEC for more oil while simultaneously choking off supply at home, President Xi tells Chinese oil workers that "China has to secure its energy supply in its own hands.”


Bloomberg (10/22/21) reports: "President Xi Jinping told oil workers that China must secure its own energy supply, signaling a continued role for fossil fuels in the nation’s efforts to meet power demands.  Xi made the remarks during a visit Thursday to the Shengli oilfield in the eastern province of Shandong, according to the People’s Daily newspaper. The oilfield is the largest operated by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec. 'Oil energy construction is very significant to our country,' Xi said. 'As a major manufacturing power, China has to secure its energy supply in its own hands.' Xi’s comments suggest that fossil fuels -- and crude in particular -- remain central to China’s efforts to ensure energy security, irrespective of the government’s parallel commitment to capping greenhouse gas emissions. The Chinese president similarly inspected a coal-to-chemicals plant while touring Shaanxi province last month. "

Building back to Obama-era gas prices!

Actions have consequences. The EU chose not let its natural gas production fall.  Now they have to deal with the consequences. 


Politico (10/22/21) reports: "Russian President Vladimir Putin is happily needling the EU over sky-high energy prices, but the bloc doesn’t really have any instruments to force a change of behavior in Moscow. Putin's latest jab came earlier this week during the Valdai conference in Sochi, where he ridiculed the EU for dropping long-term gas contracts with Russia, trotted out an old Russian folk tale where he compared the bloc to a hapless wolf with its tail frozen in an ice hole thanks to a canny fox — and added he could help by sending the EU the extra gas it needs, if regulators would only approve his pet project, the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Poland, for one, has had enough. In a letter that reads like a laundry list of complaints over failure to supply enough gas ahead of winter, seen by POLITICO, Warsaw demanded that EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager initiate an investigation into Russia's state-backed Gazprom for market manipulation and abuse of dominance on energy markets under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU."

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $85.10
Natural Gas: ↑ $5.71
Gasoline: ↑ $3.38
Diesel: ↑ $3.60
Heating Oil: ↑ $257.31
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $86.44
US Rig Count: ↑ 641

 
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