We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
Is it possible that NATO forces could become directly involved in the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine?
Until recently, such a question seemed very hypothetical given the high risks of escalation of the military confrontation between the US-led bloc and Russia into a large-scale armed conflict. But this scenario should be taken seriously now, writes Ivan Timofeev, programme director of the Valdai Club
“A significant escalation factor that would amplify the risk of a direct clash between Russia and NATO, could be the appearance of military contingents form bloc members on the territory of Ukraine. The prospect of such a scenario has already been mentioned by some Western politicians, although their view has not been supported by the US and isn’t an official NATO position.”
“Each of these scenarios involves a direct clash between Russian and NATO forces. Such a situation would inevitably raise the question of deeper bloc involvement and, in the longer term, the transfer of military conflict to other areas of contact with Russia, including the Baltic region. At this stage, it will be even more difficult to stop the escalation. The more losses both sides suffer, the more the maelstrom of hostilities will grow and the closer they will come to the threshold of using nuclear weapons. And there will be no winners.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/599286-russia-nato-ukraine-conflict/
US commercial crude oil inventories are reaching critical levels:
Crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the largest commercial storage hub in the US and the pricing point for WTI Crude, dropped -1.6 million barrels last week, to 20 million barrels, the lowest since 2014.
This marks the 8th consecutive weekly decline, totaling -8.3 million barrels.
As a result, Cushing now holds less than 2 days worth of US crude production, approaching the minimum level at which the facility can continue pumping oil efficiently.
Once inventories fall below ~20 million barrels, extracting crude becomes technically difficult and more costly, while oil quality can deteriorate due to water and sediment.
Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is down to ~340 million barrels, the lowest since 1983, after 172 million barrels were released to contain war-driven fuel price increases.
US oil inventories down to levels rarely seen in modern energy markets.
(@TheKobeissiLetter)
🛢 Regarding the attacks on refineries, they have been going on for two years now, and they have undoubtedly affected the Russian oil industry. However, the real damage is much lower than one might expect from how spectacular the images look.
This is not cope, but simply the fact that all the data published by Bloomberg and other similar sources show that Russia has been able to repair facilities and rebalance production from one refinery or region to another, from one market to another, and so on.
The damage that does seem serious to me is when facilities of the military-industrial complex are attacked, since depending on the plants involved, these can be much harder to compensate for, especially those related to radioelectronics.
At the same time, I think the recent attacks on logistics are considerably more worrying.
#info
#resources
#SAM #industry
#UAV #Cruise_Missile
—❗️🇮🇷 Iran’s Supreme National Security Council:
‘In implementation of Paragraph 5 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, commercial vessels requesting passage through the Strait of Hormuz must submit their application to the Persian Gulf Strait Administration (PGSA).
Pursuant to the MoU, no fees will be charged from applicants for a period of sixty days, and these fees will be covered by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Accordingly, the Persian Gulf Strait Administration has been instructed to process and respond to applications with speed and priority in order to achieve the objectives of the MoU.
Given the specific conditions and the existence of some safety hazards on the passage route, and due to the need to ensure safe traffic and prevent maritime accidents, it is necessary for vessels to pass on the route and time announced by the PGSA so that the amount of traffic gradually increases.
The implementation arrangements and technical details ...
