In my Retirement Village apartment complex, which is very cheap BTW, my gas bill is INCLUDED !
...and so is my water and sewer, my garbage pickup, and would you believe that my rent is only... $$$ ...nah, you wouldn't believe it. You'd think I was lying.
I thought the U.S. is the home of capitalism. And I learned the economic mnemonic: "Every free good is used wastefully". ... gas, water included... Unbelievable! (that's how it was back then in communist East Germany).
GWGeorge007 wrote:
But, I can sympathize with you, Scrooge McDuck, tremendously. I'm quite sure that you are well aware of the price gouging that Russia (and Putin!) has put on Europe as a whole, but Germany in particular.
Pakistan and Bangladesh deserve sympathy, we don't. For decades, our politicians refused to diversify gas supplies, did not build a single LNG terminal (too expensive), but built many new gas pipelines directly to Russia, bypassing the previous transit countries (Poland, Ukraine, ...). They sold the largest German gas storage and oil refineries to the Russians... And our coal and nuclear power phase-out was to be backed up exclusively by huge number of new gas-fired CCGT power plants. East Europeans have been warning us for years, Trump as well. We ignored them all. Our chancellor spoke fluent Russian and knew Putin well. She has been aware for more than 10 years that he is a mafia boss, ruthless, breaking every law and contract at will. She simply could not imagine that Putin would risk great economic damage to his country and burn his soldiers for imperial aims, not even after his wars in Chechnya, Georgia, annexation of Crimea and the Donbas terror. It will be years before panic spot market buying is replaced by long-term supply contracts. For now, Norway, U.S. LNG, gigantic amounts of spot market purchases and the moderate winter saved us. Sorry Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. We caused your blackouts with maximum bids for LNG.
GWGeorge007 wrote:
Have you seen these videos? I'm sure you have, or different versions of them, but I think others would like to know.
Yes, of course. But after months of being closed for alleged repairs and all sorts of implausible explanations, the pipelines were suddenly blown up off the Danish island of Bornholm (in Swedish territorial waters). Large amount of explosives in a perfectly placed charge for directional cutting blasts of the steel pipes. It triggered the earthquake warning system in Sweden. In the days before, the U.S. Navy (P-8 Poseidon) and the Swedish Navy were very active there after underwater targets. Wait and see if it will ever be clear who blew up the pipelines. Putin so that we have to freeze? Or not to have to pay billions in compensation? Someone else to get us Germans back on track? Who knows. With Russia's performance in Ukraine, one might question their capabilities underwater, offshore. The Norwegians had to salvage the last sunken Russian submarine.
which indicates the wholesale price 10 years ago being ~ $5 AUD per gigajoule, slightly higher by 2021 and now at ~ $25 AUD per gigajoule. Not sure how to relate that to the figures above/below but. Anyway it is a five fold increase in two years and we have been advised by our supplier that the retail price to us will double again over the course of this year.
{ We have offshore natural gas ( NW and SE continental shelves ), and we export it too as LNG, but the effort of the federales to cap the domestic wholesale price ( @ $12 AUD per gigajoule ) for one year likely will mean almost nothing* for consumers at the retail level though! At a guess I'd say we are/will being gouged for sure. }
Cheers Mike.
* Well it might be significant but I can't work out the what/why/how. Yet.
( edit ) Actually the obvious outcome I think with the wholesale cap is that producers will sell overseas for a higher price first and this will lead to shortages here. If anyone knows any different then please advise.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
which indicates the wholesale price 10 years ago being ~ $5 AUD per gigajoule, slightly higher by 2021 and now at ~ $25 AUD per gigajoule. Not sure how to relate that to the figures above/below but. Anyway it is a five fold increase in two years and we have been advised by our supplier that the retail price to us will double again over the course of this year.
{ We have offshore natural gas ( NW and SE continental shelves ), and we export it too as LNG, but the effort of the federales to cap the domestic wholesale price ( @ $12 AUD per gigajoule ) for one year likely will mean almost nothing* for consumers at the retail level though! At a guess I'd say we are/will being gouged for sure. }
Cheers Mike.
* Well it might be significant but I can't work out the what/why/how. Yet.
( edit ) Actually the obvious outcome I think with the wholesale cap is that producers will sell overseas for a higher price first and this will lead to shortages here. If anyone knows any different then please advise.
WOW double the price hike beyond the price hike you already got, that's alot!! And yes I think your assumption is correct about shortages in the future. One of the problem for companies is that shareholders ALWAYS want the share prices to go up and up and up but for that to happen the company needs to make more and more and more money every year. Sometimes that's thru job cuts, pay cuts etc but most of the time it's because they simply get more for their product than they did last year and it went up higher than the rate of inflation etc. That's one reason I bought shares in the power company where I used to live, at least I was getting something back for the money I was paying. I also know alot of people don't have that option, like I don't where I live now because mine is a 'co-op'.
* Well it might be significant but I can't work out the what/why/how. Yet.
( edit ) Actually the obvious outcome I think with the wholesale cap is that producers will sell overseas for a higher price first and this will lead to shortages here. If anyone knows any different then please advise.
LNG is apparently being exported halfway around the globe (transport costs must be crazy) to substitute the previously gigantic Russian gas supplies into the European grid. This may drives up prices (and profits) even in Australia. It will take further years until new long-term contracts with suppliers in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. come into effect (builtup of LNG infrastructure, many new LNG cargo ships). Just a guess. Hopefully the Australian government will somehow limit the burden on end customers.
Norway squeezed out the maximum from its offshore gas fields in 2022.
I don't know if anybody cares or not, but it will be a bit chilly tonight in the town of Rockford, IL (USA), which is just ~80 miles NW of Chicago, IL (USA).
-10॰ F ( -23॰ C ) with wind chills of -25॰ F to -30॰ F ( ~ -31॰ C to ~ -34॰ C )
Yes, I know it does get colder, much colder, in places like Alaska, Norway/Sweden, even Siberia. But for here it is definitely chilly for us old folks.
I don't know if anybody cares or not, but it will be a bit chilly tonight in the town of Rockford, IL (USA), which is just ~80 miles NW of Chicago, IL (USA).
-10॰ F ( -23॰ C ) with wind chills of -25॰ F to -30॰ F ( ~ -31॰ C to ~ -34॰ C )
Yes, I know it does get colder, much colder, in places like Alaska, Norway/Sweden, even Siberia. But for here it is definitely chilly for us old folks.
I care too!!
It will be in the low 50's tonight and in the mid to upper 60's with similar temps thru Friday then it could be cooler, ie the 50's during the day and the 30's to 40's at night, OR warmer, ie the lows in the high 40's to low 50's at night and near 70 for the weekend!!
I CARE that I'm not where you are right now OR Tom M either for that matter!!!
I 'care' about the large range in which the temperature changes within just 1 to 2 days. Remarkable. Tom M reported the same thing: "Thaw in Kansas". Two or three days later it was again below -10°C (14F). We don't know such temperature jumps in Germany. We have min/max -2 /1°C (28/34F) for a week. Then a front comes in from the Atlantic and the temperature "changes" to min/max 1°C/5°C (34F/41F) for a further week. It's always like that. As soon as it gets cold, wind calms down. Wind (and rarely storms) come from the Atlantic only with warm lows.
They have 'adjusted' my weekend temps downward!! Now the low for Friday night will be in the mid 20'sF and the high on Saturday will be in the low 40's!!! THAT'S COLD for around here but on Sunday the temps will be back up into the upper 50's and by Wednesday into the mid 60's again. It's roller coaster time for us before March when alot of people start planting things.
GWGeorge007 schrieb: In my
)
I thought the U.S. is the home of capitalism. And I learned the economic mnemonic: "Every free good is used wastefully". ... gas, water included... Unbelievable! (that's how it was back then in communist East Germany).
Pakistan and Bangladesh deserve sympathy, we don't. For decades, our politicians refused to diversify gas supplies, did not build a single LNG terminal (too expensive), but built many new gas pipelines directly to Russia, bypassing the previous transit countries (Poland, Ukraine, ...). They sold the largest German gas storage and oil refineries to the Russians... And our coal and nuclear power phase-out was to be backed up exclusively by huge number of new gas-fired CCGT power plants. East Europeans have been warning us for years, Trump as well. We ignored them all. Our chancellor spoke fluent Russian and knew Putin well. She has been aware for more than 10 years that he is a mafia boss, ruthless, breaking every law and contract at will. She simply could not imagine that Putin would risk great economic damage to his country and burn his soldiers for imperial aims, not even after his wars in Chechnya, Georgia, annexation of Crimea and the Donbas terror. It will be years before panic spot market buying is replaced by long-term supply contracts. For now, Norway, U.S. LNG, gigantic amounts of spot market purchases and the moderate winter saved us. Sorry Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. We caused your blackouts with maximum bids for LNG.
Yes, of course. But after months of being closed for alleged repairs and all sorts of implausible explanations, the pipelines were suddenly blown up off the Danish island of Bornholm (in Swedish territorial waters). Large amount of explosives in a perfectly placed charge for directional cutting blasts of the steel pipes. It triggered the earthquake warning system in Sweden. In the days before, the U.S. Navy (P-8 Poseidon) and the Swedish Navy were very active there after underwater targets. Wait and see if it will ever be clear who blew up the pipelines. Putin so that we have to freeze? Or not to have to pay billions in compensation? Someone else to get us Germans back on track? Who knows. With Russia's performance in Ukraine, one might question their capabilities underwater, offshore. The Norwegians had to salvage the last sunken Russian submarine.
I hope you can see the
)
I hope you can see the following graph ( http not https, SORRY ! ) sourced from our federal government's "energy regulator" :
which indicates the wholesale price 10 years ago being ~ $5 AUD per gigajoule, slightly higher by 2021 and now at ~ $25 AUD per gigajoule. Not sure how to relate that to the figures above/below but. Anyway it is a five fold increase in two years and we have been advised by our supplier that the retail price to us will double again over the course of this year.
{ We have offshore natural gas ( NW and SE continental shelves ), and we export it too as LNG, but the effort of the federales to cap the domestic wholesale price ( @ $12 AUD per gigajoule ) for one year likely will mean almost nothing* for consumers at the retail level though! At a guess I'd say we are/will being gouged for sure. }
Cheers Mike.
* Well it might be significant but I can't work out the what/why/how. Yet.
( edit ) Actually the obvious outcome I think with the wholesale cap is that producers will sell overseas for a higher price first and this will lead to shortages here. If anyone knows any different then please advise.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Mike Hewson wrote: I hope
)
WOW double the price hike beyond the price hike you already got, that's alot!! And yes I think your assumption is correct about shortages in the future. One of the problem for companies is that shareholders ALWAYS want the share prices to go up and up and up but for that to happen the company needs to make more and more and more money every year. Sometimes that's thru job cuts, pay cuts etc but most of the time it's because they simply get more for their product than they did last year and it went up higher than the rate of inflation etc. That's one reason I bought shares in the power company where I used to live, at least I was getting something back for the money I was paying. I also know alot of people don't have that option, like I don't where I live now because mine is a 'co-op'.
Heat wave warning. All the
)
Heat wave warning. All the snow in Kansas should melt.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
Mike Hewson schrieb: * Well
)
https://maritime-executive.com/article/first-australian-lng-shipment-arrives-in-europe
LNG is apparently being exported halfway around the globe (transport costs must be crazy) to substitute the previously gigantic Russian gas supplies into the European grid. This may drives up prices (and profits) even in Australia. It will take further years until new long-term contracts with suppliers in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. come into effect (builtup of LNG infrastructure, many new LNG cargo ships). Just a guess. Hopefully the Australian government will somehow limit the burden on end customers.
Norway squeezed out the maximum from its offshore gas fields in 2022.
https://www.euronews.com/2022/08/16/norway-exports-record-as-natural-gas-prices-surge
I don't know if anybody cares
)
I don't know if anybody cares or not, but it will be a bit chilly tonight in the town of Rockford, IL (USA), which is just ~80 miles NW of Chicago, IL (USA).
-10॰ F ( -23॰ C ) with wind chills of -25॰ F to -30॰ F ( ~ -31॰ C to ~ -34॰ C )
Yes, I know it does get colder, much colder, in places like Alaska, Norway/Sweden, even Siberia. But for here it is definitely chilly for us old folks.
Proud member of the Old Farts Association
I care. It's not quite as
)
I care. It's not quite as windy but it cold in Kansas too. Not -10 but 10 or so.
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
GWGeorge007 wrote:I don't
)
I care too!!
It will be in the low 50's tonight and in the mid to upper 60's with similar temps thru Friday then it could be cooler, ie the 50's during the day and the 30's to 40's at night, OR warmer, ie the lows in the high 40's to low 50's at night and near 70 for the weekend!!
I CARE that I'm not where you are right now OR Tom M either for that matter!!!
I 'care' about the large
)
I 'care' about the large range in which the temperature changes within just 1 to 2 days. Remarkable. Tom M reported the same thing: "Thaw in Kansas". Two or three days later it was again below -10°C (14F). We don't know such temperature jumps in Germany. We have min/max -2 /1°C (28/34F) for a week. Then a front comes in from the Atlantic and the temperature "changes" to min/max 1°C/5°C (34F/41F) for a further week. It's always like that. As soon as it gets cold, wind calms down. Wind (and rarely storms) come from the Atlantic only with warm lows.
They have 'adjusted' my
)
They have 'adjusted' my weekend temps downward!! Now the low for Friday night will be in the mid 20'sF and the high on Saturday will be in the low 40's!!! THAT'S COLD for around here but on Sunday the temps will be back up into the upper 50's and by Wednesday into the mid 60's again. It's roller coaster time for us before March when alot of people start planting things.