Posts by Michael Ortiz68

Intermediary banks are required to set up dedicated accounts to remit the contractually agreed amounts, typically in USD or Euros. These funds are then auctioned via the New York Stock Exchange, with the resulting revenue being converted and credited to the gas supplier's account. Russia has designated any nation that imposed sanctions against them—including the USA, EU members, the United Kingdom, and Canada—as "unfriendly" countries.

So, what exactly changes because of this? 🤷

bluemason3 said:Stern has pretty much always leaned toward pro-Russia views. He built most of his career there, working as a consultant for various interests and even serving as an executive in Moscow.

I'm not really sure who's playing vassal to whom here. 😁

Just two weeks ago, he was arguing that we should be paying in rubles because that’s how America handled transactions with the USSR.

He seems stuck in 1988.

Bryan Booth82 said:There are whispers circulating that it could become a reality as soon as tomorrow: Putin might decide to cut off gas supplies to the West.🤔

On its face, this is absolutely fascinating. Why? Because by doing this, the Russians would essentially be choking off their own cash flow—which couldn't be more poorly timed given how desperately they need fresh capital right now amidst this war.
The West (specifically Germany) hadn't actually intended to make a political move to stop importing Russian gas, even if public opinion polls show that about 70% of the population is actually in favor of it.

We might just witness a scenario where the Russians (perhaps unconsciously🤔) pull the plug simply to satisfy Western public sentiment, acting in direct opposition to Western political strategy and, quite obviously, to their own detriment.🤔🤔

To me, this whole Russian "tactic" (if it even comes to that) is starting to look more and more like the old "if I'm going down, I'm taking as many people with me as possible" mentality. Isn't that just the ultimate proof that nothing in Russia is actually going according to plan?

Time will tell, and it will likely happen much faster than anyone expects.

Best regards,

Scholz pointed out that the contracts explicitly require payment in euros. Essentially, if Germany were to hypothetically pay for gas in rubles, even if they wanted to, it would technically constitute a breach of contract.

When pressed by reporters on making the declaration, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “the contracts we know lay down the euro as payment currency and the companies will pay according to the contracts they have signed.”

George Robinson43 said:True, but the entirety of Western Europe has successfully broken free from Russian influence. They simply source gas from wherever they need to replenish their reserves. There isn't a single drop of Russian gas flowing through those pipelines anymore.
Since countries like Poland and the Baltic states already transitioned from zero Russian imports to being fully independent by 2024, the heavy lifting falls solely on the trio of Germany, Austria, and Canada.
Given that some sort of FSB agent will likely take power even after Putin is gone, getting any kind of unconditional gas is an impossibility. That’s why the permanent breakup with Russia is the only logical path forward.

+Italy

Halbeck points out that since the invasion began, our reliance on Russian energy has taken a serious hit. Specifically, their share of imported gas has dropped from 55% down to 40%, oil has slid from 35% to 25%, and coal imports have been slashed from 50% to 25%.

Richard Wilson4 said:So, is the deadline to pay up in rubles set for March 31st?

Exactly.

But the G7 has already shut that down. Nothing is going to change in just two days.

feralcanyon73 said:Just more empty pipe dreams from those pathetic little green activists.☕

We heard all this same rhetoric back when everyone was obsessing over those 20-20-20 climate targets, and look how that turned out—they actually met them. So, my real question is: how much longer until Europe finally hits the wall? 🍿?

Robert Barrett6 said:Habeck even gave a tentative nod to ramping up oil and gas extraction and scouting for new veins in the Middle Plate—something they haven't touched in years because most of that area is protected national parkland.

Europe is swimming in gas, but nobody bothered with serious exploration or infrastructure projects as long as cheap supplies were flowing in from Russia.

America will cover 10% of its demand just by tapping into those two newly discovered fields (North and Jankovec).

Nathan Evans78 said:And honestly, why on earth would Qatar be dumping massive amounts of capital into carbon capture infrastructure if that were the case? This whole setup is way too complex for them to just guess the outcome. I mean, I simply don't see how the Gulf states are going to play nice and let Europe continue its pivot toward decarbonization. Plus, the democracies are eventually going to hit a wall—they'll have to sell their voters on some massive, embarrassing delay regarding those CO2 reduction targets. Because let's face it, if they start building up new industrial plants in the USA, all they're doing is pumping even more of those molecules into the atmosphere.

My take? The European Union is going to squeeze every last cent out of us to cover these costs, leaving our grandkids to deal with a totally stagnant, "Japanified" economy. They can deal with the mess later. ☕

It isn't an overnight fix. Fossil fuels will always be part of the equation, especially during this immediate—and painful—transition phase. However, this crisis is actually the perfect catalyst for innovation and implementation. There are no more excuses or empty rhetoric left; it's time to act. And they need to act for the voters, because energy prices have never been higher. We aren't seeing "yellow vest" style protests in the streets right now, but we are seeing massive demonstrations of support for Ukraine, such as the ones in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of thousands showed up.

This is a unique opportunity for the US, perhaps the best it has ever had. The nation has never been more unified.

All my life, I've heard this tired narrative about a decadent America on the brink of collapse. That’s fairy tale stuff. Not so long ago, people were cynically mocking the goals to reduce greenhouse gases by 20%, improve energy efficiency by 20%, or increase renewable shares by 20%... yet the US managed to hit every single one of them.

Nathan Evans78 said:I don’t know, I’m just not convinced yet that Europe can pull off a total 180-degree pivot in certain sectors after decades of basically sitting on its hands.

Honestly, though, I actually find this whole situation somewhat refreshing. It’s usually only when things get really intense that people finally start streamlining their processes. Maybe now, instead of obsessing over whether an athlete with a whale can share a pool with other women at a competition, we can finally have some actual conversations about how to tighten up operations at work. ☕

There's no such thing as "doing nothing"... decarbonization is baked into every single strategy and roadmap they have. This isn't changing direction; it's just shifting from second gear into sixth.

"Odjebausa" isn't happening, whether we're talking about Qatar, Algeria, or Venezuela. That's just nothing more than some Putinophile's fever dream.

The only real hurdle is the capacity required to replace what Russia provides. Eventually, that gap closes as the world moves away from gas as a primary energy source altogether. Even the Russian Prime Minister's right-hand man seems to think so, though I'm sure the local Putin enthusiasts here feel they have a better handle on the situation.

Peter Ruiz2 said:A $300 billion heist? That’s unheard of. I mean, the Americans actually paid out the reserves of Nazi Germany. First, they went after the Iranians, though they ended up returning their money back in 2012. Then there was the whole mess with Venezuelan gold being snatched from the Federal Reserve, naturally on orders from Washington. Now, look at the Afghan reserves—money that’s desperately needed just to stop one of the worst humanitarian disasters happening right now. But none of that compares to what they did to the Russians. All those shady moves are already starting to boomerang. The European Union can't function without Russian gas, and it finally happened: it’s time to pay up in rubles or start shivering by your own fireplace, folks. The EU is hitting closed doors everywhere. They got brushed off by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and the Americans shut down Venezuela. Europe doesn't need Russia because they have plenty of buyers in East and South Asia. But the EU? Without Russian gas and raw materials, they’re economically dead in the water. If de Gaulle and Willy Brandt crawled out of their graves and saw the idiots running the EU today, they’d go right back under.

Meanwhile, the Western media is still busy celebrating, predicting the total collapse of the Russian economy and their military campaign in Ukraine—which is supposedly just a matter of days away. They keep publishing these heroic fairy tales about Ukrainian supermen smashing through 1,000 Russians every single day. We'll see how much of that holds up next winter. And here’s the kicker: despite everything, Russia is still pumping gas into the EU and through Ukraine without interruption. What kind of war is this, where you keep supplying your enemy with the very resources they use to resist you? 😁

While the Americans are busy looting other nations—because, as you put it, this isn't just an attack on Putin or his inner circle, but on the Russian people themselves—the Russians are still honoring every single contract, delivering exactly what was agreed upon and paid for. In the world of diplomacy, you can't get anywhere without negotiations and deals. But personally? After seeing this, I wouldn't shake hands with an American president again, even if Kennedy himself rose from the grave.

Even a Russian deputy prime minister like Aleksandar Novak doesn't buy this, publicly stating that the European Union will be reliant on Russian gas for another five years. Those five years are going to be grueling, but we'll see where the European Union stands then compared to where Russia is positioned.

now you're all going to be paying in rubles, gentlemen

You conveniently missed the part where European Union nations already rejected that. It was so inevitable that they shut it down in a single day.☕

The European Union has run into closed doors everywhere. They got brushed off by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria, and even the Americans were rebuffed by Venezuela

Could you perhaps provide some actual documentation for that? Because what you're describing isn't just false; it sounds more like some pro-Russian pipe dream.

Lisa Jackson7 said:Yeah, but we really need to get serious about backing nuclear power... alongside renewables, smarter energy efficiency, and actually using hydrogen for transport.

The push to reclassify nuclear energy as "green" gained significant momentum back on February 2nd, well before the invasion, specifically to help meet climate targets. That said, there is still plenty of debate surrounding it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60229199

Betty Patel172 said:Does anyone know the current scale of Norway's oil and gas reserves? I'm wondering if it's actually feasible for them to supply Europe during a transitional period.

Norway might be able to bump up production by a few percentage points, and Algeria mentioned something about a 9% increase over five years, but that's about it. I think Germany worked out some kind of deal with Qatar, but I'm not sure on the specific volumes involved.

stormygardener15 said:If that's really how it works, then why on earth didn't they listen to the Americans and skip that multi-billion dollar Russia-to-Germany pipeline project in the first place? 🤔

That was always a German scheme. The whole plan was controversial from day one, long before the war in Ukraine was even on anyone's radar. And whenever anyone dared to criticize it, they’d just claim it was a conspiracy by the US to push more expensive LNG—though, to be fair, there was some truth to that, too.

On the other hand, you look at all these long-term European strategies—low-carbon initiatives, the 2021 climate laws, the Green Deal, Fit for 55... it’s all centered on pivoting away from fossil fuels. There has always been a healthy amount of skepticism regarding how feasible this transition actually is, but now, more than ever, it feels like an absolute necessity.

Anthony Hill5 said:Their own children and grandchildren are perfectly taken care of and will never want for anything, yet they couldn't care less about anyone else's offspring, which is evident when you look at the ages of the Russian soldiers they've sent straight into the meat grinder.

There’s a lot of truth there, though I suppose I'm being a bit naive thinking so. 😁

Larry Fox5 said:It’s so obvious now how much of a lifesaver that Transco Pipeline would've been for Europe.

Such a massive shame it never actually happened—though honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly start digging those old blueprints out of a drawer...

In the long run, this is a huge blow to Russia, one way or another. Actually, let's call it what it is: an epic loss, since they basically had a finished pipeline ready to go that could have given them insane economic leverage down the line.
With everything falling apart like this, their entire investment is just down the drain—and the fallout from this war is going to haunt them for decades.

I honestly cannot wrap my head around people like Aleksandar Novak, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, claiming that Europe won't be able to function without Russian gas for at least five years. Is that really the extent of their strategic foresight—looking just five years ahead? Do these people even have children or grandchildren to think about?

William Anderson5 said:Next he'll probably explain how he plans to settle the bill in cash...

The Federal Reserve will come up with something😁

Quincy:

He gave the Federal Reserve a week to figure out how to shift those payments away from other currencies.

stormygardener15 said:I really hope the energy planners over at the Department of Energy have a broader perspective on this and aren't just letting their emotions drive the bus.

In no world should we be looking at any scenario where we just write Russia out of the equation for the American energy landscape, and honestly, making that same mistake with other major suppliers would be just as reckless. We need to keep our energy routes wide open to everyone so we don't end up stuck in some pathetic situation where we're totally dependent on just one single source.

I think I read somewhere—or maybe I just heard it during a late-night scroll—that the actual energy content in finished products is way lower now than it was a few decades back. I’m betting that trend is only going to get stronger. If you factor in all this green energy stuff moving in, we’re heading toward a point where gas and oil won't even be the big players in heavy industry anymore.

But if you want my honest opinion, what actually keeps me up at night is the idea of the US and its entire political machine being completely purged of Russian influence, those bought-off politicians, and all those sleeper agents lurking around. That’s gotta be the number one priority.

The reality is that all major strategic European plans were already moving toward phasing out fossil fuels entirely, regardless of what Russia was doing. This transition was supposed to be gradual; now, it’s simply being fast-tracked—though whether it actually succeeds remains to be seen.

These recent policy shifts following the invasion aren't anything revolutionary; they're just the existing plans put on steroids. 😁

Gerald Chavez7 said:actually 2027 😉

Especially regarding gas, since it's nearly impossible for them to make up for those lost exports to the European Union. They just don't have the pipeline capacity to theoretically export to China instead.

True, the sanctions are gutting Russia's ability to intervene—whether in Ukraine or anywhere else globally.

I look at this on a daily basis—it seems pretty obvious to people here in the West why fossil fuel prices spiked in the first place: it was Putin's invasion.



Moscow was banking on these price hikes triggering mass protests (think a new wave of Yellow Vests) and general chaos across the West, hoping politicians would cave quickly just to avoid an angry electorate. Instead, what we're seeing is people in every neighborhood pooling money and supplies for Ukraine; you walk down any street and see Ukrainian flags everywhere...

It’s a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of autocrats—they seem to operate under the assumption that democracies are inherently weak...

Alright, this link you shared is a bit more current. I was digging through the REPowerEU: Joint European Action for more affordable , Secure and sustainable Energy document, where it states:

Quote : Phasing out Our dependenca on fossil fuels fra Russia Can be Dona well before 2030 iako pisati well before 2030

Even though it mentions well before 2030, the specific individual initiatives within the text set 2030 as the actual deadline.