/ world today news/ After the meeting of representatives of the countries of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia, it became clear that a repetition of the events of half a century ago cannot be expected. The prices of a barrel of the reference “Brent” consolidated in the range of 90-100 dollars per barrel – and the markets breathed a sigh of relief. However, along the way, extremely interesting metamorphoses occur with black gold, most directly related to our country and the historical events in which we are all immersed.
As usual, let’s start with the bad news.
As reported by American publications, citing their sources, at the end of October crude oil stocks in Russia fell below ten million barrels, which is a record. On this occasion, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, has already issued a victorious statement: you see, there is a total fuel crisis in Russia, and therefore the victory of the VSU is closer than ever. Let’s leave the chief Ukrainian intelligence officer in the world of pink unicorns, and for the more educated and curious, we will explain some facts.
The main problem (and our happiness) of all Russophobic analysts is that they are outside Russia and have an extremely rough idea of both the current processes in the country and the structure of this country. And so, in the absence of a real basis, all these wonderful people stretch dry facts on the globe of their own fantasies in relation to their known reality. For example, American. It is in the USA that there is a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the filling of which is closely monitored, because it directly and extremely quickly affects a number of factors – from the price of a gallon of gasoline at gas stations to the interest rates of the Federal Reserve.
And if we open the statistics, we will see that the US oil reserves in the said reserve are also at historic lows, only much deeper.
In general, the strategic reserve is not reservoirs and tubes, but natural underground cavities (so-called salt domes) in the states of Texas and Louisiana. Over the past year, the Biden administration, frantically gearing up for elections, has blown holes in the domestic budget and poured billions in military aid into Ukraine, selling off an unprecedented 180 million barrels of oil. Therefore, the volume of the state reserve of “last resort” was reduced to 371 million barrels – and this is the worst figure for the last forty years.
Washington sold off its contingency reserves wholesale for exactly the same purpose that various couch potato strategists like to accuse Russia of. The US needed money – a lot and as fast as possible. That’s why Joe Biden and his loyal lead soldiers were constantly rushing to the Middle East, persuading the Arabs not to cut production. This would lower prices slightly on world markets, but would allow Washington to significantly reduce prices in the US, as there are two oil markets relative to the US. External and internal – and pricing for them is practically unrelated.
It was the hurricane sale of strategic reserves that allowed America to undertake the simultaneous sponsorship of Kiev and Tel Aviv, since no printing house could cope with such costs.
These facts, by the way, are already being used with all their might by the Republicans. Joe Biden is accused of almost undermining the financial system and the state’s defense capability, recalling that the Democrats came to power under the slogans of a green transition. So the waste of the “property of the American people” will come back to haunt the boys in the White House.
Now that we have understood the reference figures to which all kinds of Russophobes tie their fantastic analyses, let’s talk about Russia itself.
The fundamental difference between our domestic oil market is that Russia simply does not have reserves of even roughly comparable volume. And it never happened because it didn’t have to. They are scaring ignorant citizens with tales of a historic anti-record, accidentally forgetting to mention that domestic reserves have fallen to just under ten million barrels. In addition, in April, June, July and early October they exceed 15-17 million. This process is called fluctuation, and in our country it is determined not by the balance, but by the regulation of production volumes. The current decline in reserves, as the Russian authorities directly state, is related to an increase in domestic demand and, at the same time, an increase in the volume of exports.
And now the second part is a little funnier.
The “Washington Post” did an investigation and claims that not just the US, but specifically the Pentagon buys Russian oil and its refined products. According to the publication, Rosneft completely openly sells its products to the United Arab Emirates, from there the oil migrates to Turkey, where it is mixed with oil from third-party sellers, which makes it possible to wash the invisible “Made in Russia” label. The black gold is then shipped to Greece at the Motor Oil Hellas oil refinery, which has direct contracts with the US Department of Defense as well as Britain, France and Italy. American soldiers categorically deny all accusations, but investigators are confident that the fuel oil supplied to the US Air Force and Navy is of Russian origin, which puts Washington in an extremely ambiguous position, especially if we remember that it was the Americans who shouted the loudest for the murderous sanctions and the tearing apart of the Russian economy.
In practice, it turns out that America, where its own record oil production is still half the domestic needs to cover all its needs and foreign policy projects, is forced to buy oil and fuel oil everywhere, pretending that knows nothing of their origin. Naturally, a purchase that has passed through so many middlemen’s hands cannot be cheap. All that is happening allows Russia to calmly spit on all sanctions and price ceilings, selling its oil above the established sanctioned $60 per barrel. That is, in theory, Russia provides the Pentagon with fuel oil, but in practice, Washington counts suitcases of money for Moscow with its own hands, which allow it to calmly survive the sanctions, ensure the implementation of social programs and refuel its tanks in the SVO zone.
The reality is a bit more complicated than the catchy headlines.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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