Oil is now 135 dollars a barrel. America is still buying Putin oil.
Biden is Putin's best buddy.
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Perhaps he should see about stopping that, it will give Putin sympathisers something new to bitch about and would help hamper Putin.
Putin sympathisers bla bla...
Nobody in America gives a shit really.
If it took the fall of Ukraine to get rid of Trump, that was a sacrifice Americans were willing to make.
Trump did blackmail Ukraine with humanitarian aid being held back (as well as other assistance) indeed if they didn't help him sabotage Biden. Perhaps this is Putin holding up his end of a deal as a 'sorry' to Trump for losing in order to make Biden look weak, perhaps it is a deeper conspiracy.
Regardless of the true depth of conspiracy, I think you do not speak for all Americans and it would do you well to not pretend you know what Americans feel and think who are not yourself.
Thousands are dead right now, most of them Russian cannon fodder. This is the thing you say you don't care about and find funny to poke at Biden about.
perhaps it is a deeper conspiracy.
The only conspiracy was what was proven in the Durham report. It's now a historical fact Putin used Russian misinformation to help Hillary destroy her political opponent by giving her the fake Steele Dossier.
Putin has his puppet in office now. There will be no more further resistance or complaints from the mob.
Now, go do your part for the State and buy Russian Oil. I heard it is dyed Red with the blood of Trump supporters.
Let's choke the GOP to death along with Putin and Saudi Arabia. Last Monday, the IPCC said we have to take dramatic action to cut fossil fuel consumption- I can't think anything more likely to dramatically cut oil consumption than dramatic increases in the price of fuel. Let's make it a national wartime effort to dump our gas-guzzlers and bring electric automated public transportation online now. The tech is ready and available. We could increase the price of tenfold and still be paying less for transportation than we are right now.
Looks like Biden is on board with a big bipartisanship push to reject all oil from that evil tyrant.
Looks like Biden is on board with a big bipartisanship push to reject all oil from that evil tyrant.
Lol, no he isn't He knows what 10 Dollar a gallon gas would do. It's not just foaming OMGOP retards that drive cars or buy stuff shipped on Diesel trucks.
That's GP in a nutshell: always wrong and never learning from his mistakes
By ZEKE MILLER, MIKE BALSAMO and JOSH BOAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia’s economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The move follows pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to U.S. and Western officials to cut off the imports, which had been a glaring omission in the massive sanctions put in place on Russia over the invasion. Energy exports have kept a steady stream of cash flowing to Russia despite otherwise severe restrictions on its financial sector.
The White House said Biden would announce on Tuesday “actions to continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine.”
The U.S. will be acting alone, but in close consultation with European allies, who are more dependent on Russian energy supplies. The European Union this week will commit to phasing out its reliance on Russia for energy needs as soon as possible, but filling the void without crippling EU economies will likely take some time. Natural gas from Russia accounts for one-third of Europe’s consumption of the fossil fuel. The U.S. does not import Russian natural gas.
The issue of oil sanctions has created a conflict for the president between political interests at home and efforts to impose costs on Russia. Though Russian oil makes up only a small part of U.S. imports, Biden has said he was reluctant to ban it, cutting into supplies here and pushing gasoline prices higher.
Inflation is at a 40-year peak, fueled in large part by gas prices, and that could hurt Biden heading into the November midterm elections. He said two weeks ago that he wanted “to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.”
Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA.
Even before the U.S. ban many Western energy companies including ExxonMobil and BP moved to cut ties with the Russia and limit imports. Shell, which purchased a shipment of Russian oil this weekend, apologized for the move on Tuesday amid international criticism and pledged to halt further purchases of Russian energy supplies. Preliminary data from the U.S. Energy Department shows imports of Russian crude dropped to zero in the last week in February.
In 2021, the U.S. imported roughly 245 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia — a one-year increase of 24%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“It’s an important step to show Russia that energy is on the table,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who is now a senior fellow at the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress.
Bergmann said it wasn’t surprising that the U.S. was able to take this step before European nations, which are more dependent on Russian energy.
“All of this is being done in coordination, even if the steps are not symmetrical,” he said. “We are talking to them constantly.”
The news of Biden’s decision Tuesday was first reported by Bloomberg.
The White House announcement comes amid bipartisan pressure on Capitol Hill to ban Russian energy and impose other economic costs.
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a big boost when she declared, “Ban it.”
On Monday, Democrats on the powerful Ways & Means Committee posted, then removed, an announcement on a bipartisan bill to ban Russian oil imports and slap further trade sanctions on the country, according to an aide, because of pushback from the White House to acting before Biden had made his decision.
Pelosi told Democrats in a meeting early Tuesday that the House would go forward with a vote on legislation to ban the Russian oil imports, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private caucus meeting.
“The United States economy can fully handle any of the challenges associated with higher oil prices,” Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama. “But it will bring some challenges. We’re going to have higher prices at the pump, and there’s no way around that.”
Before the invasion, Russian oil and gas made up more than a third of government revenues. Global energy prices have surged after the invasion and have continued to rise despite coordinated releases of strategic reserves, making Russian exports even more lucrative.
As a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. and international partners have sanctioned Russia’s largest banks, its central bank and finance ministry, and moved to block certain financial institutions from the SWIFT messaging system for international payments.
But the rules issued by the Treasury Department allow Russian energy transactions to keep going through non-sanctioned banks that are not based in the U.S. in an effort to minimize any disruptions to the global energy markets.
Biden specifically highlighted those Russian energy carve-outs as a virtue because they would help to protect U.S. families and businesses from higher prices.
“Our sanctions package we specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue,” he said. Biden’s actions Tuesday were not expected to affect other nations’ energy payments to Russia.
While Russian oil makes up a small amount of overall U.S. energy imports, the U.S. could replace Russian crude with imports from other oil-rich nations, but that could prove politically problematic.
Key U.S. senators are warning the Biden administration from seeking any oil import deal from the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela.
“The Biden administration’s efforts to unify the entire world against a murderous tyrant in Moscow should not be undercut by propping up a dictator under investigation for crimes against humanity in Caracas,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement late Monday. “The democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people, much like the resolve and courage of the people of Ukraine, are worth much more than a few thousand barrels of oil.”
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@oromagi
So the premise of this thread was that America buying Russian oil strongly supports that Biden is Putin’s “ best buddy”. If that is the case than the opposite (Biden banning Russian oil) would strongly support the opposite.
So why do I get the feeling that GP will change nothing about his stance, and probably now use Biden’s ban as an argument against Biden?
He warned that Americans will see rising gas prices, saying, “Defending freedom is going to cost.”
More like defending Biden is going to cost....
America should be trying to become as self-sufficient as possible. Turning from one bad country like Russia and asking Iran or Venezuela for help is an embarrassment. Guess Freedom from Iranian terrorists or brutal Venezuelan dictatorships are not worth the "price of freedom"
Americans are sick and tired of diaper-men in DC telling them what to care about,
Guess Biden had a good run.
America should be trying to become as self-sufficient as possible.
Agreed. Screw Iran. Fuck Venezuala. I reduced my annual mileage by 90% just by working from home last year. Walmart has a fleet of self-driving EV trucks ready to drive. Let's leave the combustion engine behind and expand into non-global warming non-war making techs asap.
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@oromagi
Yes, I just bought my second Tesla. The power in my area is supplied by a nuclear power plant. The future of energy is Fusion Nuclear Power.
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@Double_R
So why do I get the feeling that GP will change nothing about his stance,
I think it has been clear for a long time that GP is not the master of his own thought processes. His stances will change but not by reason.
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@Greyparrot
Oil is now 135 dollars a barrel. America is still buying Putin oil.
Just cancelled it lol. Let’s see if he goes to another dictator for the oil
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@ILikePie5
Chinese refiners are paying for Russian crude oil using cash transfers to maintain imports from Russia’s Fast East, as banks shy away from financing the oil because of sanctions, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Global oil prices LCOc1 have soared to their highest in a decade as banks halted financing Russian oil after the United States and other countries ramped up sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
Spot crude premiums and freight rates also spiked, piling on buyers’ costs.
Several European and U.S. refiners have stopped buying Russian oil this week, even though Washington said Russian oil and gas are exempted from sanctions.
But Chinese buyers are looking to maintain purchases of ESPO Blend crude exported from Russia’s Far East Kozmino port using other payment methods as they cannot secure letters of credit from banks, trade sources said.
“For those done deals, payments are being sorted out with buyers doing Telegraphic Transfer as bank financing becomes very difficult,” said a Singapore-based Chinese trading executive.
Telegraphic transfer, equivalent to cash pre-payment, requires buyers to transfer funds to sellers up front, a challenge for some cash-strapped independent refiners with each Aframax tanker-sized cargo now costing more than $85 million, the sources said.
Some sellers are providing open credit, but this raises their risk exposure, they added.
Sources said the cash settlements still need to go through the SWIFT messaging system to Russian banks which are not on the U.S. sanction list, said two trading executives with knowledge of the situation.
ESPO blend is popular among China’s independent refiners because of its short voyage time from Russia, availability on a spot basis, and good fuel yield.
Russia is the world’s No. 2 crude exporter, with exports reaching 7.8 million barrels per day in December, the International Energy Agency said.
Last year China imported 575,000 barrels per day of ESPO shipped by tankers, some 6% of total Chinese crude oil imports, with the majority processed by independent refiners, according to tanker tracker Vortexa Analytics.
State refining major Sinopec 0386.HK is a key buyer and trader of seaborne ESPO.
Sinopec’s trading vehicle Unipec, which rivals Vitol as the world’s top oil trader, typically has large open credit lines with suppliers that allow the major to pay a month after a shipment is loaded.
Unipec has bought as many as eight ESPO cargoes for April loading, traders said.
Sinopec did not immediately comment on how the firm pays for its purchases.
One independent refiner who buys ESPO crude said the company can only use telegraphic transfer (TT) to pay for the oil, and that financing costs are now high because oil prices have surged and there is no longer a credit period for repayment.
“We can only use TT for now,” the buyer said. “Previously with LCs, we had a credit period of 30 days. But now we have to pay up front.”
“Refining margins are poor, too,” the source added.
With oil near $120 a barrel, allowing teapots to pay after oil is delivered magnifies risk exposure for a trading company.
Sellers may well ask refiners to provide cash or part of the cargo as collateral, traders said.
“Whichever way, we believe China’s ESPO influx will continue as teapots don’t have many other options, as prices of competing supplies like West African oil went sky-high,” said a second Singapore-based executive with an independent refiner.
Spot premiums of West African and Brazilian crude for May delivery jumped to $9-$10 a barrel above dated Brent this week in volatile trade, a buyer said.
Adding to refiners’ costs are surging freight rates, which have nearly doubled over the week to $900,000 per day for an Aframax tanker sailing from Russia’s Kozmino port to north China, the highest since May 2020, according to traders and Refinitiv data.
China separately buys 800,000 bpd of Russian oil via pipelines under a government-to-government deal between state energy giant CNPC and Russian oil major Rosneft. The pipeline flows remained unaffected, Chinese oil officials have said.
China has repeatedly voiced opposition to the sanctions, calling them ineffective and insisting it will maintain normal economic and trade exchanges with Russia.
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@ILikePie5
Dumb ass Biden just drove Russia into an alliance with China.
Too bad he will be likely dead by the time Americans figure out what a monumental fuckup this was.
People are not thinking clearly at all in DC. Putin already has the money right now. The time to sanction him was a year ago, not a week ago. Russia will have Chinese money, and already has most of Ukraine. What was the point of doing this except to shoot ourselves in the foot?
And now the poorest of Americans are going to have to pay for this.
Let’s see if he goes to another dictator for the oil.
Saudi doesn't give a crap, neither does Maduro. Maduro's power rests on keeping America an enemy. Saudi turned the spigot off long before Biden could find it on the map in the hopes Biden would destroy USA fracking.
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@ILikePie5
Iran might be willing to deal if Biden allows Iran to get nukes.
THESIS: BIDEN is DUMB for BUYING RUSSIAN OIL
(Biden stop buying Russian oil, thesis disproved)
NEW THESIS: BIDEN is DUMB for NOT BUYING RUSSIAN OIL
We could spared so much argument if GP only developed an appropriate sense of shame.
Some people will have an elevated position in China's new social credit America. Others will subvert them at every opportunity.
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@Greyparrot
I sincerely have to ask:
What do you believe Biden should have done?
As Oro pointed out, the thesis for your original argument was that Biden was buddying up to Putin by continuing to buy oil from Russia, so continuing to buy oil from Russia is not a position you would support.
The thesis for your new argument is that refusing to buy Russian oil drives said oil towards other countries like China. Setting aside the fact that that still requires massive changes to how Russia does trade, including redirecting a great deal of its oil shipping, and setting aside the fact that China likely won't purchase all the oil that the US currently gets from Russia (and any increases would necessarily need to be negotiated, during which Russia is in a dry spell), that means that you also oppose a ban on Russian oil.
Indulge me. What is the correct course of action in your estimation?
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@whiteflame
Biden backed himself into a no-win situation a year ago. We are just seeing the results in real time now.
Americans are now paying for a war they didn't start at the pump, whether they agreed to it or not.
What is the correct course of action in your estimation?
Pull another Afghanistan. Withdraw from Ukraine and cede the indefensible territory. We made this outcome inevitable with bad decisions a year ago just like we did with Afghanistan.
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@whiteflame
What is the correct course of action in your estimation?
To bitch about whatever Biden does because of bitterness from him beating Trump in the election.
My doctor calls it BDS.
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@Greyparrot
Biden backed himself into a no-win situation a year ago. We are just seeing the results in real time now.Americans are now paying for a war they didn't start at the pump, whether they agreed to it or not.
That's... not really an answer to my question. You're condemning Biden's choice. You've condemned both possible avenues. If you think that what he did a year ago created a no-win situation, then why are you condemning a choice you decided would be bad regardless of what it was? Why take the time to post this if you're really just mad at what he did beforehand?
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@Discipulus_Didicit
To bitch about whatever Biden does because of bitterness from him beating Trump in the election.My doctor calls it BDS.
You're not wrong.
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@whiteflame
then why are you condemning a choice you decided would be bad regardless of what it was?
What beef do you have with someone condemning a person who, with his actions, directly led to this no-win scenario?
I'm really curious.
Who would you blame for the current no-win situation? Don't let me guess.
You're not wrong.
Nevermind, It's clear you're just looking to troll. Not interested in what you think anymore.
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@Greyparrot
What beef do you have with someone condemning a person who, with his actions, directly led to this no-win scenario?I'm really curious.Who would you blame for the current no-win situation? Don't let me guess.
That's... an interesting response. You're clearly not understanding what I'm getting at.
You're not choosing to condemn Biden for the actions that precipitated a no-win scenario. If you were, you'd be talking about what precipitated the set of circumstances that led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which, last I checked, is not the focus of this thread.
You're condemning Biden for the actions he took after the no-win scenario was already in effect, i.e. there was nothing that Biden could have done that would have led to a positive result in your estimation. No choice he could have made at this point would have received your blessing. All choices are bad. Yet, you condemn a specific choice, and when he decides to change, you just shift your condemnation.
That's why I responded to you here. That's why I agreed with what Disc said. It doesn't seem like your goal here was to set the record straight on what Biden should have done. Your goal here was to condemn him for a decision that was going to yield negative results regardless of what it was. Maybe that wasn't the result of bitterness over the election, but it's still bitter and it's still pointless.
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@whiteflame
It doesn't seem like your goal here was to set the record straight on what Biden should have done.
I directly said what he should have done and you ignored it. That smacks of bad faith discussion.
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@Greyparrot
I didn't see this when I checked earlier, so I'll address it now.
Pull another Afghanistan. Withdraw from Ukraine and cede the indefensible territory. We made this outcome inevitable with bad decisions a year ago just like we did with Afghanistan.
I don't think this is a workable option in any way, shape or form, especially considering that your whole point is that Biden was helping Putin out. Your response would be to cede a whole country to Putin. If Biden did this, how is it not beneficial to Putin? Or is your argument that there is no way to prevent Putin from winning out in the end, so we should just buddy him as much as possible to get out of this mess?