MOSCOW has condemned the so-called ‘price cap’ on Russian oil, insisting that it will continue to sell its oil in markets outside Europe.
‘Starting from this year Europe will live without Russian oil,’ Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organisations in Vienna, tweeted on Saturday.
‘Moscow has already made it clear that it will NOT supply oil to those countries who support the anti-market price cap,’ he added.
Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in Washington noted in a statement on Saturday that officials in the country are ‘confident that Russian oil will continue to be in demand.’
Last Friday, the European Commission (EC) declared that the European Union would be imposing a ‘global price cap on seaborne oil from Russia’ of $60/barrel.
Under the scheme, insurers and brokers who service oil tankers which ship Russian fuel exceeding this price limit imposed by Brussels, risk being sanctioned.
The EC President Ursula von der Leyen said, ‘The EU agreement on an oil price cap, coordinated with G7 and others, will reduce Russia’s revenues significantly.’
She insisted that the move would also ‘help stabilise global energy prices, benefiting emerging economies around the world.’
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron warned people in his country not to waste any energy and be prepared for power cuts during winter.
‘First of all, let us be clear: no panic! It is legitimate for the government to prepare for the extreme cases which would mean cutting off electricity for a few hours per day if we did not have enough power,’ Macron said in an interview with French TV station TF1.
According to a plan proposed by the French government, power cuts could be avoided if energy consumption decreases by 10 per cent.
However, French government officials have warned that power cuts will occur when the energy grid is overly strained, in the event of the combination of unusually cold weather, ongoing problems at French nuclear plants and the failure to purchase extra power supplies from neighbouring countries – this includes Russia.
Moscow has already warned that it will not sell any oil to states which impose a price cap on Russian energy – this includes France.
Last Thursday, the head of French power grid operator RTE also warned France may face ‘some days’ of power cuts.
French authorities across the country have been tasked with preparing an emergency response in the event of a power cut in their area.
Households with high-risk patients, who depend on at-home medical equipment, will be particularly impacted by these possible power cuts.
And The Ministry of Education is to develop plans to close schools if the area is to be impacted by rolling blackouts. Having schools open during power cuts could have negative ramifications, considering a lack of heating, alarm systems and lighting.
At the same time, to make matters worse this winter the French government decided to stop the nationwide fuel subsidies on December 31.
The war in Ukraine has massively increased oil and gas prices as both Russia and the West use hydrocarbon supplies as a bargaining chip to force the other’s hand.
The market price of fuels and electricity has adjusted accordingly, triggering double-digit energy inflation.
The increase in fuel prices amid the warnings of power cuts has prompted many people to start burning firewood.
Now, firewood providers are warning that, due to a sharp increase in the number of households in the market, there will not be enough wood for everyone this winter.
In 2019, according to a report from wood group Le Comité National pour le Dévelopement du Bois, there are ‘between 7.5 and eight million households in France that have a firewood fuelled heating source installed (both logs and wood pellets)’.
However, in 2022, the energy watchdog l’Agence de l’Environement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (ADEME) said 9.5 million households were using woodfired energy, warning that the number of households burning firewood would go higher despite the environmental damage.
Gérard Fellous, director of Quality-bûches, told Le Figaro newspaper: ‘Over the last few weeks, ADEME has greatly promoted heating with pellets. But this has caused a significant increase in the price of wood.
‘Pellet prices have tripled over the past six months, leading to rises in logs and our costs.’
Fellous also said that the cost of raw wood has risen by 20 per cent, requiring producers to pass the cost onto their customers.
‘I have seen three rises since the start of the summer, which are purely due to repercussions from (rising) prices from the supplier.’
Fellous pointed out that demand began early in July this year, when usually it only starts in autumn.
‘Without doing any advertising,’ he said, ‘I receive 100 calls per day, which I send straight to voicemail. This has never happened, it’s unheard of.’
Julian, a heating wood supplier, also said that he ‘had never seen such demand in my life’. He said he is receiving 40 calls per day, versus just five normally.
He said: ‘I hope that winter won’t be severe, otherwise it will get very complicated.’
- France’s state-owned railway company has cancelled more than half of its trips this weekend because of a nationwide strike by rail conductors.
The French train operator SNCF imposed the drastic service cutbacks as nearly 10,000 conductors went on strike on Saturday demanding better work conditions.
‘It is a strike that we did not see coming, neither we nor the unions,’ CEO of the SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou told Swissinfo last Thursday.
The three-day strikes lasted until Sunday evening, and severely affected rail traffic between France and Switzerland, as only one out of every three trains was seen running.
Trains to Switzerland and Italy were cut by two-thirds, trains to Germany were cut by half, and all trains to Spain were cancelled, SCNF said.
Union leaders said the walk-outs were to draw attention to new management-imposed rules requiring that members work three weekends per month and sleep away from home for more than 10 nights per month.
The conductors’ union had two meetings with management – which made no progress – before the strike. Now other unions have joined in support, filing strike notices for both the Christmas and New Year’s weekends to put pressure on the SNCF.
Meanwhile, the SNCF management said it would hold ‘new meetings’ with trade unions and workers next week.
Over the past three months, major French trade unions have staged several mass demonstrations in Paris and hundreds of other cities across France to call for higher salaries amid soaring cost of living.
As the war drags on in Ukraine, the gloomy economic outlook continues to trigger protests across Europe.
Demonstrators in many European countries have taken to the streets demanding pay rises and better working conditions.
- Troops from Russia and Laos have taken part in the active phase of the Laros 2022 joint military drills, Alexander Mazur, Russian head of the counter-terror manoeuvres, said yesterday.
‘Today, the Russian Armed Forces and the Laos People’s Army exercised jointly to practice joint operations and combat training to prepare for, organise and conduct combat operations in various types of warfare,’ Mazur said in a video released by Russia’s Defence Ministry.
He confirmed the manoeuvres involved about 100 items of military hardware and ‘the assigned objectives were achieved.’
The active phase of the drills took part at the Ban Pan training ground on Laotian territory. A joint tactical airborne assault force was employed for the first time.
Armoured, motorised infantry and reinforcement units of Russia’s Eastern Military District from the Primorsky Region, together with the Laos People’s Army practiced joint reconnaissance and search operations to uncover ‘notional outlawed armed gangs’.
Following this, the crews of both countries advanced on T-72BMS tanks to designated areas, with fire support from armoured vehicles.
The participating troops took important borders and positions with the help of artillery and aircraft and also seized a bridgehead in the assigned area.
‘The troops of both countries practiced landing air assault units from military transport planes. In order to assist the troops advancing on the frontline, the landed air assault force attacked the notional enemy from the flank, foiling the plans of the defending outlawed armed gangs,’ the ministry said, adding that the battlegroup managed to rout these ‘notional terrorists’.
The Laros 2022 joint Russia-Laos drills involve more than 800 troops from both countries.