Free Republic

The Germans aren’t laughing now. In fact, gas prices are so high in Germany today that wood-burning stoves and firewood have become scarce nationwide. German citizens are loading up on wood to heat their homes next year — just like they did in the Middle Ages.

Some landlords in Germany are rationing hot water and will turn down the heating as Europe's largest economy battles soaring energy costs due to reduced supplies of Russian natural gas. German real estate company, Vonovia, said it would lower tenants' heating during the night to cut costs. In a statement sent to Insider, the company said the move was designed to "save as much gas as possible," adding that reducing temperatures between 11pm and 6am would reduce heating costs by about 8%. Some tenants in Dippoldiswalde, Saxony, will only be able to take a hot shower between 4am and 8am,...

For months, Germany has feared having to ration energy amid Russia’s increasing willingness to turn off the tap. Now those fears are becoming a reality as Germany prepares for a return to 1970s-style energy rationing, when the OPEC oil embargo forced governments to mandate measures like dimmer lights and car-free Sundays. Only, the energy crisis of 2022 isn’t limited to oil. Last year, Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas imports. Germany has since been able to reduce that number to 35%, but with Russia seemingly prepared to further cut gas shipments to Europe, German officials are...

A Marshall Plan approach to a condition of war or the threat of war is likely with intervention in non-Russia natural gas supply made up as the United States supplies Europe for most of its requirement.

Despite serious supply problems in the market, oil prices crashed on Tuesday morning (5 July 2022) due to renewed recession fears and the prospect of demand destruction.

Japan is facing an energy crisis that can severely hurt the world's third-largest economy as it is forced to tackle a combination of a weak local currency, the fallout from the Ukraine war, and a heatwave. Japan already had a significant energy import bill as it depends on foreign oil and gas for 90 percent of its needs. But as the yen fell to the lowest in 20 years, Japan's bill became even bigger, with the price rise in crude oil, which has been some 40 percent in dollar terms since the start of 2022, reaching a whopping 70 percent...

By Rédaction Africanews with AFP Last updated: 27/06 - 19:01 LIBYA The Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) on Monday warned to declare a "force majeure" on its facilities in the northern Gulf of Sirte within 72 hours, as it is unable to meet its contractual obligations due to their forced closure. "We are considering declaring a state of force majeure in the next 72 hours if oil production and exports do not resume at the Gulf of Sirte terminals," NOC boss Mustafa Sanalla warned in a statement, calling on "all parties" to work for "the reopening of the oil fields...

Just over six months ago, in December 2021, I asked the question that was on the tip of the tongue of everybody who follows the subject of the ongoing massive “green” transition to fossil-fuel-free energy. Actually, that’s a lie. The question I asked was not on the tip of the tongue of everybody who follows the subject, or even of most of the people who follow the subject, for reasons that to me are completely inexplicable. The question was : “Which Country Or U.S. State Will Be The First To Hit The Green Energy Wall?” The candidates that I nominated...

Joe Biden is at the G7 Summit. Soundbites of the world leaders mocking Russia were picked up. With the Supreme Court news about Roe v. Wade being overturned and gun rights expanded, the Left is in meltdown mode. So, this devastating update probably got lost in the ether. Biden’s energy plan is toast. It got blown up. It shows Biden being outmaneuvered by our allies. The way it was done also shows that Europe knows this presidency needs to be pushed along—a lot. It was the clearest sign of the weakness exhibited by Biden. The gross incompetence is pervasive. Within...

BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s economy minister said Sunday that the country will limit the use of gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a reduction in supplies from Russia. Germany has been trying to fill its gas storage facilities to capacity ahead of the winter months, when gas is more urgently needed as a heating fuel.

Hackers on Friday delayed the start of President Vladimir Putin's speech to Russia's flagship economic forum, shorn of strong Western participation as Russia adjusts to the "new reality" of life under Western sanctions. -snip- But the Western investors and investment bankers who had turned up in previous years were conspicuously absent. -snip- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a denial of service attack, which works by flooding servers with bogus traffic, had struck the forum's accreditation and admission systems. -snip- Internet connectivity and speeds suffered at the forum, and Putin's speech, in which he accused the West of trying to crush...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One month ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist and journalist in 2018. With members of the D.C. Council in attendance, a Jamal Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy’s main entrance. “We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ... that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder of our...

Russia’s announcement that it would reduce natural gas flows through a key European pipeline by roughly 40% appears to be a political move rather than a result of technical problems, Germany’s vice chancellor said Wednesday. Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom also told Italian gas giant Eni that it would reduce gas through a different pipeline by roughly 15% on Wednesday. The reason for the reduction has not been made clear, and the Italian company said it was monitoring the situation. The reduced flows follow Russia’s halt of natural gas supplies to Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark as Europe works to...

Nearly three years after promising to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah," President Joe Biden is set to extend an olive branch to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following months of reproach. The White House confirmed Monday that Biden will visit the oil-rich nation this summer, the culmination of an 18-month rollercoaster that started with Biden ostracizing Crown Prince Mohammed, commonly known as MBS, and ends with his administration trying to win back MBS' affections as gas prices soar due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Attempts by US officials to convince the Saudis to pump more oil have been unsuccessful so...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Serbia has been cancelled after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft, a senior foreign ministry source told the Interfax news agency on Sunday. The source confirmed a Serbian media report that said Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried Moscow's top diplomat to Belgrade on Monday. "Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation," the source said.

A German state agency has said that it will likely soon be providing over 400,000 more Ukrainian migrants with unemployment benefits over the next few weeks. A total of around 410,000 migrants ostensibly from Ukraine will soon be on the German dole, with hundreds of thousands more on top of that expected to end up receiving unemployment benefit in the central European state before the end of the year. This is the assessment of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, which is already reportedly giving handouts to millions of migrants under the so-called “Hartz IV” scheme. According to a report by Die...

OPEC+ and its allies agreed Thursday to increase oil production more than expected, opening the door for Saudi Arabia to ramp up its own output if wartime sanctions force Russia to pump less... The OPEC+ decision comes after sources told the Financial Times that Saudi Arabia is prepared to pump more. Concern over a more dire supply squeeze for crude oil has emerged since the European Union announced its partial Russian oil embargo on Tuesday, as well as a ban on insurance for Russian cargoes that could limit Moscow's exports to markets outside the EU.

The European Union has reached a deal to ban the import of Russian oil , EU council president Charles Michel said late on Tuesday. In a tweet, he said it would immediately covers more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia, “cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine”.A proposed exception for oil delivered by pipeline earlier edged the EU towards finalising the deal to sanction Russia and squeeze its financial ability to wage war in Ukraine.

German inflation hit another post-World-War-II record high, piling pressure on The ECB’s need to exit from crisis-era stimulus after numbers from Spain also printed hotter than expected. Driven by soaring energy and food costs, this morning’s data showed consumer prices in Europe’s largest economy surged 8.7% YoY – far hotter than the +8.1% expected (the highest since the start of the monthly statistics in 1963). And top of that, the German 10-year Bund rate rose +9.4 BPS this morning, although Finland, Hungary and Slovakia all rose above +10 BPS. While US markets are closed today in honor of Memorial Day,...

German inflation hit another post-World-War-II record high, piling pressure on The ECB’s need to exit from crisis-era stimulus after numbers from Spain also printed hotter than expected.Driven by soaring energy and food costs, this morning’s data showed consumer prices in Europe’s largest economy surged 8.7% YoY – far hotter than the +8.1% expected (thge highest since the start of the monthly statistics in 1963). As Bloomberg reports, the report comes just 10 days before a crucial ECB meeting where officials are set to announce the conclusion of large-scale asset purchases and confirm plans to raise interest rates in July for...