Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
OPEC has updated its forecast for Russia’s 2016 output, raising it by 0.05 mmbpd to 11.04 mmbpd, implying 1.7% growth y-o-y. (OPEC seems to be using a conversion rate of 7.4 barrels per ton while most Russia-watchers use 7.3.) This…
Bloomberg cites Putin supporting a universal oil freeze: “Russia is ready to join in joint measures to limit output and calls on other oil exporters to do the same,” Putin said on Monday at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul.…
On Sept. 15, three days after OPEC published its latest monthly report, I suggested that the cartel’s forecasters might be underestimating Russia’s output and overestimating Kashagan’s in the fourth quarter. From Russian preliminary data, September output looks close to 11.1 mmbpd, up…
One of the field launches I mentioned in the final paragraphs of this post: President Vladimir Putin will watch the launch of the Vostochno-Messoyakha field, jointly developed by Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, via a video link… Russia’s oil output is…
The Financial Times on the long-awaited launch of the Caspian offshore field, Kashagan: The Kashagan oilfield in Kazakhstan, which has earned the unfortunate nickname “cash-all-gone” due to a series of expensive overruns, is now scheduled to finally start up in October,…
The International Energy Agency (IEA) notes in its August 2016 report: By contrast [to the US, China, Columbia and Mexico], Russia has shrugged off lower prices, international sanctions and financing difficulties to become non-OPEC’s largest source of supply growth. While…
A few quick footnotes to Ed Caesar’s piece on Deutsche Bank’s Russian adventures in The New Yorker. A sensible article, unexpectedly since it deals with finance and modern Russia, both difficult subjects for a literary magazine. Still it doesn’t mention the…
OK, here’s the apparent reason for Russia’s daily oil output inching down by 2%+ this month from the average July rate. Actually, the shortfall has lately narrowed a little to about 30,000 tons per day or 220,000 bpd, less than 2%…
The so-called Media and Communications Union, an association of Russia’s mobile and fixed telecom operators, has drafted a bill that would force all providers of “electronic messaging” services to require that users identify themselves and to block messages or posts with…
The media is anxious to find evidence of Trump’s deals with Russian oligarchs to prove Putin’s influence over the candidate. Since Russian oligarchs are but Putin’s puppets – so the logic goes – the man in the Kremlin can either…
Last September and October, I wrote about George Soros’ untimely announcement that Russian oil production was in decline. The data links in these posts seem to be working all right, providing updated information. It indicates that the decline has so far failed to begin.…
The frenzied, absurd, profligate “urban redevelopment” underway in Moscow under Mayor Sergei Sobyanin fills me with a low-grade, drone-like dread of what’s to come. Throwing money to the wind seldom if ever resolves itself into respectable austerity: abject misery is the default…