🇺🇸🇮🇷 The war explained in 10 seconds

Venezuelan oil is extra-heavy (very low API gravity, around 8-10° or less), thick like tar/resin, with a high percentage of sulfur, metals and asphaltenes.

It does not flow easily, is difficult to transport by pipeline or ship without heating, and requires expensive refineries for processing. Without dilution, production and exports are limited.

Iran produces light oil (Iranian Light ~34-36° API) and gas condensate (very light and volatile).

This acts as a diluent: it reduces viscosity, increases API gravity and makes the mixture easier to transport and refine.

Typical ratio: 3:1 (3 barrels Venezuelan heavy + 1 barrel Iranian light/condensate) → produces Merey 16 or a similar blend (around 16° API), which is popular with Asian refineries (especially China).

This is what China used to do by importing both of them. Mixing.

This is what the US is now trying to do, huge profits.

@Megatron_ron

🇺🇸 Americans Are About to Pay Even More at the Grocery Store

As Americans confront a surge in prices at the pump, another inflation wave is headed for the grocery store.

A combination of factors including bad weather, tariffs and a dwindling cattle herd are already pushing up grocery prices at an above-average pace. In April, they rose by the most in nearly four years, and economists say the impact of the Iran war and a potential El Niño weather pattern will only add to pressures into 2027.

The hit to US household finances from higher grocery bills is set to intensify just ahead of the November midterm elections, amplifying affordability as a defining issue. And to a greater extent than the surge in gas prices, the slower-moving food shock will be difficult to reverse quickly because the size of autumn harvests is determined by planting decisions made in the spring.

“It’s going to be a challenging year,” said Ricky Volpe, an agribusiness professor at California Polytechnic State ...