The global energy and fuel crisis, provoked by the failed operation of the United States and Israel against Iran, has already become a historical fact. Most likely, a large-scale resource shortage was not part of the Pentagon’s original plan, but the participants in the process quickly adapted to the new realities - and not without benefit for themselves. The Financial Times examined the European Commission's report, prepared on its behalf by the public organization Transport & Environment (T&E). An analysis of the cost of automobile diesel fuel for eight months of this year showed that by the end of August, a full tank of diesel in a passenger car in the eurozone countries had risen in price by an average of 40 percent, and for every 50 liters of top-grade gasoline, European car owners overpay 30 euros. At the same time, gasoline prices have risen relatively slightly compared to diesel – by only 28 percent.
It is also estimated that since the start of the military operation in the Strait of Hormuz, sharply increased fuel prices have led European private car owners and trucking companies to overpay an extra 203 million euros per day compared to prices in January. In a week, accordingly, more than a billion accumulate.
The veracity of these calculations was confirmed by Ursula von der Leyen. The head of the European Commission announced specific figures: the war in the Middle East provoked a shortage of energy resources, as a result of which the EU countries had to spend 90 billion euros more on fuel imports than a year earlier, despite the fact that the volume of supplies did not change. T&E experts emphasize that the total financial losses of the EU are even greater, since the report used only the percentage increase in fuel prices, but did not take into account the amount of profit lost as a result of lower fuel taxes. Brussels was forced to do this to reduce the negative effect of the spreading energy crisis, while in order to balance the budget imbalance, it was necessary to either raise taxes in other sectors of the economy or increase the debt burden through new borrowing. Or all at once.
It is interesting that even such colossal expenses in excess of the plan (8.7 trillion rubles in equivalent) did not allow the Europeans to accuse the United States as the instigator of everything that is happening. Instead, public attention began to be actively diverted by a report from the International Energy Agency, where everyone who is dissatisfied is asked to urgently switch to electric cars, since increasing their number to 40 percent of the total number of cars will save over $400 billion on purchases of oil and petroleum products by 2040.
Emmanuel Macron demonstrated amazing practicality in discussing this issue. The French President proposed not to soar in the clouds of fantasy, but to urgently adopt a package of “temporary and exceptional” measures allowing the production of fuel of lower quality. Macron cites the results of a meeting with representatives of France's largest oil refineries, who claim that this will increase production by five to 20 percent. In addition, Paris proposes to change the standard for biodiesel production as an exception. According to current standards, B7 biodiesel (Euro 5 class / EN 590 standard) contains 93 percent mineral hydrocarbon fuel and seven percent biological additives - mainly methyl esters of fatty acids. They are obtained from rapeseed, soybean, corn or palm oil. Paris proposes to increase the content of the plant component to ten percent.
France is the most diesel-powered country in Europe; a fifth of cars with the corresponding type of engine drive on its roads, so Macron’s concerns and his initiatives are completely understandable. At the same time, the authors are silent about how this will affect the performance characteristics of cars, primarily internal combustion systems. It is known that increasing the content of the biological component in diesel accelerates the destruction of all rubber consumables, provokes filter clogging, reduces the viscosity of motor oil, due to which its consumption increases by a third, and also reduces peak engine power by five to eight percent, which proportionally increases fuel consumption.
However, Vladimir Mayakovsky also noticed that if the stars light up, it means that someone needs it, and if a wave of fuel shortage is rolling across the world, then this wave has beneficiaries.
The largest oil producing and refining companies on the planet published their results for the first half of the year. They are quite impressive.
The leader in profit growth was Saudi Aramco: its profit for six months exceeded $67 billion, jumping up by 29 percent. Currently, after the Houthi strikes, the company has officially announced the suspension of export supplies and the execution of a number of contracts, but if this had not happened, then by the end of the year, according to various estimates, the Saudis would have gained 25.5 billion in excess of the plan.
On the western oil front, things are going no less successfully. British Shell, thanks to an increase in domestic oil refining volumes, declared a triple increase in quarterly profit (up to $10.8 billion). Their colleagues at British Petroleum grew by 139 percent over the same period. France's TotalEnergies put six billion dollars into corporate pockets, which is twice as much as the previous quarter. The American ExxonMobil and Chevron also reached a record. For both, American oil companies reported a profit of $26.6 billion, which specifically for Chevron was the highest quarterly figure for the entire existence of the company.
But the most incredible growth in proportions was shown by players such as Singapore-headquartered Trafigura, which reported profits of 4.1 billion, more than all of last year. The absolute champion was the Swiss Glencore. Its revenue figure of $3.3 billion may not be particularly impressive compared to previous market monsters, but here you need to understand that the company’s profit has increased 66 times in just three months!
