Free Republic

Ukraine says it has struck a critical oil-pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region, igniting a large fire at a hub feeding the Druzhba pipeline to Europe. The Unecha facility also links to the Baltic Pipeline System-2, which carries Russian crude to Ust-Luga, the country’s second-largest Baltic oil port.

Russia’s finance ministry has slashed its forecast for taxable oil production for next year, a draft budget seen by Reuters showed on Friday. The draft budget covers the next three years and forecasts a decline in crude oil production and refining as Western sanctions bite... The finance ministry sees Russian oil and gas condensate production... a 7% - 8% decline from... (what) the ministry anticipated this year (after having already adjusted this year's estimate downward)... Expected oil refining volumes were cut by nearly 20%... The refusal of some countries to work with Russia in the oil markets and having to...

Short of an official request, the White House is now encouraging U.S. drillers to produce more crude. The White House has received a lot of pushback in recent days for not tapping what many see as at least a partial solution to the headache that is high oil prices—U.S. shale. In a move that likely angered his environment-conscious base, the White House has issued a muted request for U.S. oil companies to increase crude oil production in the wake of high crude oil and gasoline prices. Though words are different than deeds—and President Joe Biden’s deeds have been decisively anti-fossil...