World wide awareness that fossil fuels are going to be restricted and more heavily taxed is gaining momentum. Inevitably, there will be a race to see who ends up with the fewest stranded assets and the greatest cash reserve.
I think the Saudis may have just fired the starting gun.
Russia on Friday rejected an agreement with OPEC on cuts in oil supplies to bolster prices.
Saudi Arabia slashed its export oil prices over the weekend in what is likely to be the start of a price war aimed at Russia but with potentially devastating repercussions for Russia’s ally Venezuela, Saudi Arabia’s enemy Iran and even American oil companies.
The effects were quickly felt, as the Brent global oil benchmark price collapsed by about $11 a barrel, or 25 percent, late Sunday in the sharpest decline since at least 1991, and stock market futures fell by about 3 percent.
The Saudi decision to cut prices by nearly 10 percent on Saturday was a dramatic move in retaliation for Russia’s refusal on Friday to join the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in a large production cut as the coronavirus continues to slow the global economy and, with it, demand for oil.
NBC: Saudi Arabia to hike oil output above 10 mln bpd in April after OPEC+ deal collapse
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, plans to raise its crude oil production significantly above 10 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, after the collapse of the OPEC supply cut agreement with Russia, two sources told Reuters on Sunday.
State oil giant Aramco will boost its crude output after the current OPEC+ cut deal expires at the end of March, the sources said.
On Saturday, Aramco slashed its official selling price (OSP) for April for all its crude grades to all destinations, after OPEC’s oil supply cut pact with Russia fell apart on Friday, sending oil into a tailspin. ...
A three-year pact between OPEC and Russia ended in acrimony on Friday after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts to cope with the outbreak of the coronavirus and OPEC responded by removing all limits on its own production.
Oh, and:
Households in Switzerland could feasibly be energy self-sufficient by 2050
By 2050, photovoltaic technologies that convert sunlight into electricity could enable many single- and multi-family buildings in Switzerland to produce enough energy to meet their own consumption needs, including the charging of electric vehicles. Ursin Gstöhl and Stefan Pfenninger of ETH Zürich report these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 4, 2020.
One of Putin’s largest revenue streams is selling natural gas to Europe for winter heating. And Europe is working as hard as humanly possible to make him obsolete.
UPDATE: Wasn’t online last night so I missed this very good diary by Galtisalie on aspects of the same subject.
www.dailykos.com/...