Saturday, August 06, 2022

Is Russia Selling Its Oil To The World Through An Obscure Egyptian Port?

Ian Thorpe, 6 August 2022

While there is little that is believable in the reports coming out of Ukraine from both sides engaged in the conflict, with Russia saying nothing while western media propaganda continues to talk up Ukrainian successes along the lines of "Ukraine is winning, the Russian army is being pushed back, Putin has been humiliated and his military campaign is in disarray, oops another major Ukrainian city / stronghold has fallen to the Russians .... but Ukraine is still winning. In the meantime of course, while Ukrainian civilians suffer ans their country is reduced to rubble, in what was always America's latest proxy war with the east, in the economic war Russia is ahead by a distance.

As this blog predicted when NATO and EU member states shot themselves in the foot by reacting to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with sanctions that prevented Russia from selling oil, gas and vital raw materials to the countries that needed them most, the NATO and EU member states, the Russians have had no problems finding alternative customers for their gas and oil and no problem getting oil into the world's commodity markets through the back door.

Despite the sanctions that were put in place as a result of the country's conflict in Ukraine the Russian economy is prospering while the sanctioning nations are facing crises of energy supply, food shortage and runaway inflation.

The loophole Russia is exploiting to sell its oil is by trans - shipping tanker cargoes on Egypt’s El Hamra oil terminal, where about 700,000 barrels of oil were delivered on July 24. Another vessel then came into port and collected a cargo of crude oil, which may have included some or all the Russian oil, according to Bloomberg.

The final destination of the oil is "hard to track," especially if it has been blended with oil from other sources. Egypt’s Western Desert Operating Petroleum Co. operates the port, which has 6 storage tanks capable of handling the quantities of oil involved. 


Picture: Zero Hedge

The Bloomberg report continues, "Once the first tanker left, a second arrived, the report said. When the second tanker left on July 28, its cargo tanks were almost full and it is moored at the Ras Shukheir oil terminal on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. 

The El Hamra port was originally build to handle crude that was produced in Egypt’s western desert. The available facilities create possibilities to mix Russian oil with local volumes and make it harder to track. 

Tankers carrying Russian crude oil have previously conducted ship to ship transfers off the Spanish north African city of Ceuta and, more recently, in the mid-Atlantic, Bloomberg noted.It all seems a higly unlikely way of transporting and offloading a legitimate cargo and must increase transportation costs at a time when Corporate Finance Officers are trying to shave every penny they can off costs.

But the more times the fuel is blended, transported or changes hands, the harder it is to track... So one could be forgiven for thinking there is something dodgy about the whole operation. In the end of course it is we poor taxpayers in the developed nations who take the untimate hit while everybody else gets richer.

RELATED:

Energy: Green dreams
Irans oil and the US dollar
ISIS selling oil through raqqa
Saudi Arabia, Quatar and the oil trade

Are US Supplied Long Range Missiles Really Winning The War For Ukraine?
Since very soon after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine western powers, USA, UK, EU and NATO have been doing everything possible to prolong and escalate the war. The latest move is to provide the Ukrainian military with long range HIMARS missile. Mainstream media are claiming this has tilted the balance in Ukraine's favour. But for what? To prolong the slaughter? ...

"Our Country Is Facing The Biggest Crisis The Crisis We Ever Had": German Employers' Association Warns Over Russian Gas Cut
With the Nord Stream 1 pipeline closed for maintenance, with the possibility that President Putin will not allow it to reopen at the end of the scheduled 10 days downtime in retaliation for the EU's continued support or Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, Germany is facing an unprecedented crisis that could erase the prosperity Germans have grown accustomed to, warned Rainer Dulger, head of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations.

Europe's biggest economy would suffer a 6.5pc contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn 
Even though the sanctions already imposed on Russia in respondse to the invasion of Ukraine are hitting the nations that imposed then harder that their intended target, the EU is preparing to committ economic suicide in an orgy of virtue signalling ...

European Union Is Again Close To A Meltdown As Eurozone Economy Collapses
Once more we return to the political instability and economic fragility of the European Union as the conflict in Ukraine combined with loonytoons Climate Change mitigation policies, the failure of 'sustainables' to meet ever increasing demand for electricity, fod shortages and rampant price inflation put economic and social pressure on governments of member states ...

We The Good Guys Versus They The Bad Guys Reporting Does Not Make Sense For The Ukraine Crisis
Mainstream media reporting of the conflict in Ukraine has disappointed. Perhaps I was naive to suppose that lessons might have been learned from the hits their print sales and online traffic rates took as a result of their handling the COVID pandemic But instead of focusing on the most obviously newsworthy aspect of the build up to and escalation of the war, Russia’s view of NATO expansion into Ukraine and even further to Georgia and Kazakhstan, news reports have simply demonised Russia and portrayed Ukraine as the good guys.

Boris and Biden Can't Blame Ukraine War For Energy Crisis
With typical arrogance and condescension towards the people who elected them Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and their respectiive presstitutes are trying to spin the energy crisis Europe and North America are currently facing as somehow being linked to the conflict in Ukraine and therfore blame is being attactched to Russia and Vladimir Putin. Do they really think we are stupid enough to believe such unmitigated bollocks? ...

Even If The War In Ukraine Ends, Sanctions Will Stay - So How Bad Will The Food Crisis Get?
Western leaders, desperate to show their own countries they were taking a firm stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were quick to impose economic sanctions ... so quick in fact that they acted before they had though things through. While freezing Russia out of the global finance system they have exacerbated the wests energy crisis, while Russia's retaliatory ban on raw materials (fertiliser) exports will create extra problems on top of those we already had ...

Europe's Depleted Gas Storage Might Not Get Refilled Ahead Of Next Winter
While mainstream news reporting of the conflict in Ukraine continues to pump out a torrent of anri - Russia, pro - war propaganda the catastropic effects of this war that could so easily have been avoided are not mentioned. Well why would warmongering governments admit they have inflicted an energy crisis, food shortages and soaring living costs on their people for no good reason ...

No comments: