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| Sabetta, Yamal LNG Plant (the red placemark in the upper right corner) |
An attempt to tow the drifting Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz to a Libyan port has failed, Libya’s Ports and Maritime Transport Authority said on April 2.The tanker broke free from the tugboat in rough weather. Strong winds and high waves made it impossible to reattach the tow line. The authority declared the vessel “out of control” and warned other ships to stay away from it.
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| Arctic Metagaz Left to right: Arzew Algeria, Malta, Damietta & Port Said Egypt, Tienshangang China |
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| Estimated U. S. Energy Consumption in 2023: 93.6 Quads |
Found this on Casey Handmer's Blog. Click to embiggenate. A quad is a unit of measurement equal to one quadrillion (10^15) British Thermal Units (BTUs). I suspect that Rejected Energy (the gray box in the upper right corner of the chart) is energy that is converted to heat and dissipated, and Energy Services (the block box in the lower right corner) is energy that was used for useful things. So roughly one third of the 93.6 quadrillion BTUs were used to do something useful, and the other two-thirds was was converted to waste heat. This is a bunch, but it is negligible compared to the zillion BTUs the sun delivers every day.
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| Aegir Deepwater Construction Vessel (DCV) |
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| Nord Stream |
‘Eurasia’s Geoeconomic Reshuffling’: The Multipolar Effect of the Nord Stream Explosion by Valdir da Silva BezerraSince the mid-20th century, Russia and Europe have established a complementary and mutually beneficial relationship in the energy sector. Now, very few people remember, but when Putin came to power in 2000, one of the new president’s ideas was to strengthen Europe’s political independence by combining the continent’s technological and industrial capabilities with Russia’s abundance of natural resources. For Putin, a united Europe was paramount to establishing continental peace, based on a fair relationship between the West and Russia. Nevertheless, in order to achieve this unity, both sides had to abandon the past stereotypes of the Cold War era; otherwise, there could be no ‘Greater Europe’, much less a united one. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, politicians in Washington were also aware of these talks about combining Russian energy assets with Europe’s industrial might.
That’s why, starting in the early 2000s, United States policymakers began to raise concerns about Europe’s “dependence on Russian energy” during official talks with their Atlantic partners, instilling fears that the continent was about to become hostage to Moscow’s ‘geopolitical ambitions’. Taking things a step further, after the Ukrainian crisis of 2014, Washington began threatening European companies with sanctions for their involvement in geoeconomic and geostrategic projects, such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was slated to connect Germany and Russia via the Baltic Sea.
Finally, following the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the world witnessed the most consequential act of infrastructure sabotage in European history, with the Nord Stream explosions of September 2022. In fact, the Nord Stream blast seemed to follow one of the most critical tenets of 20th-century British politics, formulated by the geographer Halford Mackinder, who advised against an alliance between Germany and Russia, as this would enable the Eurasian landmass to grow stronger than Great Britain’s sea power. Within that context, the cutting of Russia’s ‘umbilical cord’ to Europe represented the materialisation of Mackinder’s very advice, but at the cost of European taxpayers.
Before the blasts, Nord Stream 1 alone supplied about 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year, covering roughly 15% of all European gas consumption. The sudden loss of this infrastructure contributed to the surge in energy prices across the continent: by late 2022, wholesale natural gas prices in Europe had spiked to more than €300 per megawatt-hour—over 10 times higher than the average between 2016 and 2020. Industries dependent on cheap gas, especially in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, saw production slowdowns and temporary shutdowns, with German chemical output falling by roughly 10% in 2022. Households also faced soaring heating and electricity bills, prompting EU governments to spend over €600 billion in subsidies and emergency measures to cushion the impact. Beyond the economic shock, the explosions increased Europe’s vulnerability by forcing rapid diversification toward costlier liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and exposing the strategic risks of critical infrastructure sabotage.
An economic reshuffling also took place in Eurasia, while the amount of Russian gas flowing to Europe dropped to a minimum. Until 2021, Russia’s share in Europe’s total imports of natural gas was 43%. In 2023, this figure was down to only 14%. In Europe, the response to the Nord Stream explosion, as mentioned earlier, was marked by a diversification of gas suppliers and a change in gas logistics. If, in 2013, 82% of European gas imports came via pipelines (234 bcm) and only 18% (51 bcm) in liquefied form (LNG), by 2023, the situation had drastically reversed. LNG now represents approximately 60% of all gas imports (169 bcm) in Europe, while pipeline imports have fallen to 40% (111 bcm). That marks a 331% increase in LNG purchases by Europe over the course of a single decade! In this new scenario, the United States emerged as the leading supplier of LNG to Europe. Now, the North Americans account for approximately 45% of Europe’s LNG imports, followed by Qatar, which contributes 12% (on the other hand, Norway established itself as the largest pipeline gas supplier, accounting for about 33% of Europe’s total imports). As a result, Europe has increased its dependence on the United States, both politically and economically.
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| Power of Siberia Pipeline |
Did you notice the EU just lost its gas lifeline?The EU’s cheap-gas lifeline just got handed to Beijing instead. With three signatures, Russia, China and Mongolia rerouted half a century of energy history eastward.
On Tuesday, the three countries signed a legally binding memorandum for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline – a roughly 2,600-km line, at an estimated cost of around $13.6 bn, that will carry 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas every year through Mongolia into northern China’s industrial heartland.
While the pricing structure has yet to be fixed, the signatories have effectively redrawn the European energy map.
For decades, this gas was the bedrock of German and Western European industry, piped from Russia’s Yamal fields in the Arctic through Nord Stream 1 directly into Germany. Now, that same supply is being redirected east.
I have previously posted about several of the places that are shown on the map:
RealClear Wire has a nice story about electric power generation:
Affordable, Reliable, Clean Scorecard: Natural Gas Is Tops, Wind and Solar Are the Worst by James Taylor
I read something the other day that said the reason power plants quit using as much coal wasn't because of environmental reasons, but because natural gas was just cheaper. It's not just the cost of the fuel, it's also the cost of operating a coal fired boiler and all the structures and machinery needed to feed the boiler.
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| North American Petroleum Pipelines Foundation of our civilization |
Groups of people working together, commonly called 'businesses' or 'companies', is what makes our modern life possible. Some people like to complain about businesses by using phrases like 'they aren't fair' or they are 'making obscene profits'. Businesses are not the problem. The problem is that we don't have enough people organizing groups of people into productive enterprises. I dunno, maybe it's not possible to have everyone working. Or maybe the people who aren't working don't want to work. Well, sure, there are people who don't want to work, but the problem right now it that there are a large number of people who want to work, but can't find meaningful employment, and by meaningful, I mean a job that pays a decent wage and is not soul-crushing. Just how much a decent wage is is open to debate, likewise how much soul-crushing a person can tolerate is also variable. More money can alleviate some of that soul-crushing, at least for a while.
The big problem is that people can be disagreeable. Getting a group of people to work together requires a cerain force of personality. A thick skin may also be necessary. We complain about politicians being corrupt, or stupid or in league with the devil, but they are the ones who are willing to wade into swamp and deal with all the other swamp creatures. I sometimes think I should give it a try, but that takes energy, and at this point in my life, this blog takes all my creative energy.
But you should give it a try. You can't be any worse than any of the morons who currently inhabit the swamp of politics.
If the economy gets too bad, you start getting rabble rousers calling on the downtrodden to rise up and then you get revolutions and wars. Are people in warmer climates more sensitive to slights? More likely to take offense? Is that why countries in the tropics suffer from wars and revolutions more frequently? Or is it that clear thinking in warmer climes is in short supply?
I don't understand the war in Ukraine. I've been trying to figure it out, but I'm not having much luck. But this week I came up with a couple of new ideas.
My favorite is that somebody with serious clout, he might even be running the country, though with all the infighting going on I don't think anyone is really in charge, and certainly not effing Joe Brandon. Anyway, this mythical big shot has got a personal hard on for Ukraine and he just wants to destroy the country. Somebody pissed him off so bad, made him so angry that he is going to lay waste to the entire country. So far he's doing a pretty good job.
This might even be why he decided to start poking the bear back in 2014. Irritate the Russians enough and they are likely to retaliate, and that would suit Mr. Big just fine. Also, don't allow Ukraine to actually retaliate against Russia because that would mean war and we don't really want to hurt Russia, we want to confine all the death and destruction to Ukraine.
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| Ukrainian Oil and Gas Reserves and War Zones |
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| Djibouti |
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| LNG Tanker |
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| USS Vella Gulf |
Page 77
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| USS Bainbridge |
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| Maersk Alabama Hijacking |
Page 199 'the Song telling us "The sweet things in life to you were just loaned. So how can you lose what you never owned?"' - Rudy Vallee
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| Statue de Foch Place du Trocadero, 75016 Paris France |
Page 202 We have this passage:
Cars came around to take different streets off the Place Verdun, circling past the statue of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, 1851-1929, on a pedestal in the center of the plaza, the single word J'Attaque below his name.
Xavier said, "Ferdinand was asked what he'd do if surrounded by Germans and he said he'd attack. I believe it was at Verdun he lost somethin like eighty thousand men j'attackin." He said, "There's your man there."
So I go looking for Place Verdun and a statue of Marshal Foch in Djibouti but all I find it this poster:
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| Commandant Marchand - Across Africa Book Cover |
"In 1896, Captain Marchand was appointed to lead the Congo-Nile mission to the White Nile River, with the aim of establishing a French protectorate in southern Egypt. Marchand led a team of eight French officers and 150 Senegalese skirmishers up the Congo, Ubangi and Bahr el-Ghazal rivers, arriving in Fashoda on 10 July 1898. They built a fort and raised the French tricolour flag. In September, the Anglo-Egyptian army under General Kitchener arrived at Fashoda. French and British colonialist ambitions came face to face at Fashoda, a standoff that ended in December 1898 when the French government ordered its troops to retreat to Djibouti."
Eventually I realized Xavier was just giving an example of a particularly bull-headed soldier to describe Buck, the soldier they were meeting. Although the French were in Africa, Marshal Foch was not.
The accident in Mongolia’s capital has killed six and left 14 injured. A truck carrying 60 tons of liquified natural gas (LNG) collided with a car and exploded in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar.
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| Truck & cryogenic trailer |
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| Ulaanbaatar Mongolia |
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| SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy Booster |
SpaceX Starship Heavy Booster holds 750 tons of liquid methane (LNG is basically methane), so it's going to take 25 trailer loads to fill the booster.
Update December 2025 replaced missing video.
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| LNG tanker © Getty Images / nikkytok |
The World Cup (soccer) was held in Qatar this year. Argentina won. Cool, I guess.
My nephew Nick has returned from a two month sojourn in India. He visited Delhi and points north up to the Himalayas. I imagine he had some good times, but his trip to the mountains was an adventure, as in an ordeal. Anyway, his flight from Seattle took him over the North Pole and Russia to Doha, Qatar. That struck me as a little weird, I mean Qatar seems to be a bit out of the way. And they flew over Russia. I guess that's okay since we aren't technically at war with Russia, are we? Whatever, let's try and plot that flight.
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| Google Maps makes a hash of it That is not a polar route |
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| Google Earth gets it right, but at the expense of detail. It was also a pain in the neck to use. |
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| Great Circle Map might be technically accurate, but the drawing is horribly distorted |
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| GC Map did it better, but it was awkward to use and not much detail |
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| LNG Tanker Loading in Qatar |
I still don't understand why we blew up the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Tom Luongo took a stab at it now Adam Piagott is giving us his take.
The attack on the Nord Stream pipelines is comparable to blowing up Bonneville dam or destroying an electrical power plant. So far no terrorist organization has stepped forward to claim responsibility, but then this isn't a typical terrorist attack. There were no immediate casualties, no bloody bodies being shown on the nightly news, nothing visceral that would project fear into the general population.
These / those, whatever. I came up with the title which reminded me of this scene. The outlaws have the advantage of being able to see their enemy, so 'those' is appropriate. You can point to 'those' guys. These guys are a little more nebulous. I doubt you ever see them on the news. All we've got is some speculation that kind of narrows it down to some very large number.
In case you haven't heard somebody blew up the Nord Stream pipelines that transport Natural Gas from Russia to Germany thereby ensuring that Europe is not going to be getting any Natural Gas from Russia even if Russia turned on the taps. I think Europe can still get Russian gas from the pipeline across the Ukraine, but with the war going on I wouldn't count on it.
What I can't figure out is why anyone would do that. I suppose a couple of deranged fanatics in a fishing boat and a couple of boxes of dynamite could have done it, but it looks more like a state actor to me. CIA, I'm lookin' at you. Why do you want to destroy Europe? Was a Parisian waiter rude to you the last time you were there? Are you afraid the European Union is going to start throwing their weight around? Or maybe you despise everything about EU Socialism. Well, whatever your reason this is probably going to do it.
I suspect an American cartel is behind this. They look at the world and try to figure out ways they can gain more control of it. Why? Probably because they think they can run it better than anyone else. I mean, they already have more money than god. I think we have to move beyond that. Destroying Europe is going to destroy a great deal of wealth. Are our cartel members jealous of their position of power and anyone who threatens it must be destroyed?
Biden is probably part of it. He may have even originated the plan back before his brain turned to mush. The plan was probably begun around ten years ago when they started subverting Ukraine. Was destroying Europe part of that plan? Who knows, but they certainly took advantage of it when the opportunity presented itself.
Or maybe I'm all wet and it's all Russians all the time. The advantage of blaming the Russians is everyone knows the Russians are inscrutable, so they probably had double secret Russian reasons for blowing up the pipeline, reasons we could not comprehend even if we knew what they were.
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| Gazprom Helium Service |
On Friday, the first eight China-bound Russian trucks from the Gazprom Helium Service fleet, powered by liquefied natural gas, crossed the bridge via the Kani-Kurgan-Heihe checkpoint.
Helium use in the USA used to be controlled by the Federal government, but that was a while back. Evidently there is plenty available now, baring industrial accidents and political wrangling.
The total US LNG output according to the EIA for 2022 is 11.5 bcf per day, which is 115 bcm per year, or roughly the capacities of Nord Stream 1 and 2 combined.
I take bcf to mean billions of cubic feet and bcm to mean billions of cubic meters and I notice that the number give for bcm per year is ten times the amount given for bcf per day, which makes me wonder if this could be right? So I haul out my trusty spreadsheet and check, and lo and behold it does.
Of course a little mental arithmetic could assure you that the numbers are at least in the same ball park. A cubic yard holds 27 cubic feet and cubic meter is a little bigger than a cubic yard. Ten times 27 is 270 which is roughly the same size as 365, so yeah, it could be, but it still seems to be too much of a coincidence so I had to check.
