German economy harmed by ... pensioners?

So the story is:  the Greek tourism industry is suggesting German pensioners winter in Greece, to save on fuel bills (and indeed bills for food and almost everything else).  Fair enough - it has more logic than the blarney the Irish tourist board feeds to Americans ("we know you all like to think you have Irish roots, so you all need to come 'home' at least twice a year wearing a clip-on ginger beard and a silly green hat" etc etc, cue twiddledy-dee music).  And of course the association of German travel agents agrees, and suggests a government subsidy for the travel. 

But ... 

Opposition politicians have said the idea has to be treated with caution, not least because it could have a negative effect on Germany’s economy.

Wow.  If that's what they think is going to harm the German economy, they have a very big surprise coming.  

Is any politician, anywhere in the West, levelling with voters on how bad it's going to be?  Don't they need to, in order to get the public best-positioned for whatever can be done by individuals, or inevitably will have to be done by government?  Or is everyone relying on the local equivalent of Martin Lewis, in the hope he's best placed to break the bad news?

ND

Mr Putin's Gas is Heating Things Up

We've several times mused over Putin's gas weapon:  how he's carefully kept Germany supplied and, in turn, how careful Ukraine has been with the transit pipelines; how 'green' ignorance on the critical and frankly irreplaceable role of gas in European economies contributed to the remarkable willingness of European countries to approve swingeing sanctions; how Putin couldn't believe this degree of ignorance really existed; how on earth Germany might do without their continual fix of Russian gas.

Well now he's done it: not content with shutting off supplies to non-ruble-compliant buyers in half a dozen 'lesser' countries, Putin has now cut back Nord Stream 1, Germany's only direct import route from Russia, to 40% of capacity, at exactly the time new German laws require that much-depleted gas storage be steadily filled, in order to be full at the start of winter.  The Germans are running around like headless chickens, busily bringing old lignite burners, FFS, back into the powergen fleet.  There isn't a country in Europe with any coal capacity that isn't actively trying to maximise it, Greta or no Greta.

The MSM in this country hasn't really cottoned on yet: hey, it's a record June heatwave!  Barring some astonishing (and right now, quite unexpected) climbdown by somebody, this makes next winter a perilous time for us all: outright gas shortages in mainland Europe, and unheard-of prices everywhere.  Oil won't be far behind gas and electricity.

What is the UK government doing?  Tinkering with a couple of coal plants.  What it's NOT doing is preparing the populace for what's to come.  Ordinarily, this would be a rather obvious thing to do: at least there's a very genuine externality to blame, however you define it.  But I guess an 'optimist' like Johnson has absolutely no interest in looking forward further than, well, the next shag.  I can't even guess how this is going to play out, socially or politically.

ND

"Biden to get gas for Europe" - Really?

It's jolly nice of Joe Biden to say that he'll make sure "Europe is able to make it through the winter and spring" as regards natural gas, if Putin switches off (some of) the taps.  But he'll search in vain for a good precedent.

Oil is proibably the most relevant.  Yes, Saudi Arabia has been prevailed upon from time to time to open the taps a bit - but in terms of total volume, only to marginal effect.  (The effect on the price can be disproportionate, of course: that's how the market dynamic of commodities operates.)  But what about the First Oil Crisis 1973-74?

Recap: Israel invaded Egypt; OPEC reduced overall production and instituted an "embargo" of sales to countries it deemed to be supporting Israel - notably, the Netherlands on some pretext I've forgotten.  So the OECD set up a small working group in its Paris offices, (an organisation that was later to become permanent as the IEA) to coordinate the entire free world's oil stocks.  Everyone played ball, and a scheme of global rationing was put in place.**  It kinda worked, and eventually OPEC backed down.

But let nobody imagine it was a walk in the park.  (a) All motoring was severely impacted, for months++.  (b) Not a few power stations around the western world were oil-fired back then, and there were serious power cuts.  (c) The price of oil went up from around $3 to $12, and stayed there (until the Second Oil Crisis in 1979, of course, when it went to $30).  This of course is widely blamed for the serious western inflation and economic downturn of the '70s, Thatcher & the Wicked Tories etc etc.

And oil is very much easier to re-direct and store than natural gas, even with today's big fleet of LNG vessels.  Biden makes great play of how he's talked to the Qataris about "more gas for Europe" but believe me, at recent prices they and every non-Russian gas producer on the planet has been flat out at max already.  (Whisper it softly but the UK has been importing US shale gas for months now.) 

The parallels of the oil crisis of 1973 if played out in natural gas in 2022 would be extremely painful, possibly long-lasting, and inflicted on populations that have forgotten about commodity privations and how to get by.   (1973 was less than 30 years after WW2, and only 20 years after UK rationing stopped.)   In particular, who can see the Germans - among the worst exposed - going along with it?  As noted here before, Merkel spent the long years of her regime doing absolutely nothing to lessen German dependence on Russian gas (not even a single LNG terminal) because, truth be told, (i) she's a Russophile and (ii) Germany's foreign policy vis-à-vis Russia has long been based on a voluntary Danegeld principle, which privately they've convinced themselves is a positive thing.  They're appallingly exposed; and the rest of us still largely depend on gas for heating, and (across the whole of Europe) balancing the grids when the wind doesn't blow.

So Good Luck Joe, and thanks for the thought, even as we contemplate shivering through until spring.  But you try getting the Germans fully onside.

ND

_______________________

**  They wanted the rationing to be "optimal" (big word, that) so they needed a Linear Programming approach of unprecedented magnitude.  The maths doesn't change with size so it's conceptually straightforward - but not so easy on the computers of the day.  So Exxon offered the use of its suite of mainframes at Florham Park, NJ, and its expert staff of mathematicians (which big energy companies used to have in those days).

++ I was at Sandhurst at the time.  We had our use of trucks severely curtailed, and frequently had to get to training areas on 1930's vintage iron bicycles!  Riding a heavy bicycle, in winter, on unmetalled tracks in full kit with a GPMG on your back is no joke, I may tell you.  Character-forming, indeed ...

  

Energy Crisis Rumbles On

This could get interesting.  Thus far, nothing fundamental has happened that should cause deep alarm, and the (UK) government has actually responded quite intelligently.  But there's an obvious risk that nerves are lost and mad policies get enacted in a hurry, which later become hard to unravel (see several of Sunak's little wheezes over Covid).

First of all, what does anyone expect when the whole world (a) is trying to stop using coal (yes, even China and India, though not trying very hard); (b) has installed epic quantities of wind power; and (c) is recovering strongly from the pandemic, including running big schemes for massive infrastructure development?  Oh, and the world's biggest producer (little Volodya, this means you) is willfully holding back supplies for political reasons?  

Commodity price spikes, that's what.

Although every country will have its special circumstances, the basic phenomenon is hitting everyone.  So - the market (and it's only relatively recently that the gas market has become global, thanks to LNG and the gradual cessation of mad oil-linked pricing in the Far East) is functioning correctly!    

One of the first things that will happen is that US shale producers (those still standing, that is) will be dusting off their drilling plans, having experienced an awful 18 months of rock-bottom gas prices.  That'll help.  (Wonder whether Boris will take another look at fracking, too ... but not this side of COP26!)   And not just gas production: the economics of a whole range of energy-related items will change, too: grid-scale batteries - the major beneficiaries of electricity price volatility, which is what we're seeing - are making absolute fortunes right now.  Some will benefit hugely, some will not:  the list is endless.

But what might policy makers stumble into at a time like this?  Actually, Kwasi Kwarteng gave a very good defence of the free market when he spoke over the weekend (as did Boris in his incoherent bumbling fashion): hopefully this means they aren't inclined to intervene in stupid ways.  The principles they've given for NOT bailing out the tiny suppliers (who shouldn't even exist - a real indictment of Ofgem that they ever got supply licences: many of them are outright scammers), but ensuring the smooth functioning of the "supplier of last resort" mechanism, seem prudent enough.  But the need to intervene in the chemicals industry (which I think is fair, given we are in uncharted territory) might result in mission-creep on other fronts.  The special-pleaders are forming a long queue ...    

What else?

Russia:  the Euro-wallahs are pretty angry with Putin's naked ransom-holding over Nord Stream 2.  What will they do?  Germany has an election coming up ...

Europe:  expect plans to shut down coal & lignite plants to be thrown into reverse (but not this side of COP26 ..!)  Even the Graun has noticed that Europe is fundamentally hooked on natural gas, whatever the greens might like to wish for.

Nukes:  EDF will be salivating at the prospect of a large-scale failure of nerve by HMG on a new public finance mechanism for more new nukes.  Rolls Royce won't be far behind with their odd "mini-nukes" plans (they aren't so "mini" at all).

Lefty-greens:  these types never miss an opportunity to set up their demented wails ("if only we had gone over to 100% wind five years ago, none of this would have happened ... oh, wait a minute ...";  "this shows the need for 100% nationalisation and a New Green Deal which involves everything we've ever wished for including Trans Rights, all bundled up together in green string") etc etc.  I think we may safely ignore them, just as Kier Starmer wisely does.

COP26:  The entertaining prospect emerges that November's COP26 might take place against a background of power cuts, if not to the conference hall then to industry.  (Actually I think that's more likely in Feb-March, but we'll see).  In any event, the whole thing has become more problematic for Boris and his longed-for global "king of the world" PR triumph, because even though most countries will politely defer big "retrograde" measures until after November, few of them will nowadays have quite as much stomach for "wind power solves all problems", or "you rich nations can easily afford $100bn p.a. for us developing nations" - in private, anyway. 

There are loads of other potential ramifications but I'll stop there for now.

Will the lights go out?  Regular readers will know I endlessly back National Grid to prevent this.  But this year, the cost of doing so will be very high indeed.  And you know what?  If we get a serious cold spell, they might actually fail this time.

ND

Nick Drew right about Russia, again



Ukrainian troops withdrawing from, err, Ukraine

As usual, ND has it right. Last week predicting that the Russians will interested in closing off a pocket in the line that they have cleared in rebel areas.

Predictably, the ceasefire agreed last week has been 'in place' everywhere except here. Now the Ukrainian troops are withdrawing having lost control of the vital railway station. Now of course, the ceasefire can be honoured!

I still cannot explain rationally what Merkel and Hollande thought they were doing. Clearly Putin told Merkel to get on with a plan for separation lest the war be expanded and also that Germany had its gas cut-off*. Unsurprisingly, these same calls with Cameron and Obama did not meet with a desire to travel the world working out a Russian appeasement strategy. Quite why Cameron is getting a bad press from not engaging in this charade is beyond me - but then again, the press has lots of left-wing Quislings who perhaps have not noticed Russia's fast move from Communism to Fascism.

The only real question left is does Russia want a bigger client state and a new land border with Crimea or is the current chunk enough to satisfy the demand currently?

One valuable lesson of the 1930's is that land grabs are addictive for successful leaders and don't stop until a serious war effort is made to halt them.


*I may have been informed of this by a rather reliable source.