#Oil's Roller Coaster Ride

Crude has had quite a ride since #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine.  First up 38% in the first 12 days, but it's been downhill since. 

#Biden ❤️ #Venezuela's #Oil

#Sanctions on #Russia have led the US to start a rapprochement with #Venezuela's Maduro

Mary Anastasia O’Grady says it well in the Wall Street Journal:

“This would be a good time to make life more difficult for Mr. Maduro. Instead the Biden delegation’s visit to Caracas bestowed upon him much-craved legitimacy.”

“You’d think that woke American corporations and Wall Street would be embarrassed to be seen doing business with gangsters”

“Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PdVSA, is an environmental wrecking ball. Satellite images of Lake Maracaibo show the complete devastation the company has caused. Similar degradation has occurred in the Amazonas and Orinoco regions, where the Maduro regime collaborates with criminal groups engaged in mining that trashes the environment.

“On human rights, Caracas’s record of imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killings is chilling. Some five million Venezuelans have fled the country. Those who remain suffer unimaginable privation, often without running water or adequate nutrition for their children.”

And yet the administration seeks engagement with Maduro’s criminal regime…

See the whole piece by Mary Anastasia O’Grady here: Opinion | Biden Eyes Venezuelan Oil:

More pressure on #BP over ties to #Rosneft as fuel supplier to Russian army

 

Rosneft has been under US and EU sanctions since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Those measures were designed to ensure Rosneft could still export oil and gas but stymie its future growth. As a result, BP was still able to report profits of more than $2.4bn from its Rosneft stake last year and collect $640mn in dividends, while Looney has continued to sit on the Russian group’s board.