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Strategies & Market Trends : The Financial Collapse of 2001 Unwinding -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (8739)	6/10/2022 6:38:32 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 13789

Arctic oil and gas exploration and mining projects have grown rapidly in recent years, with 599 projects either already in operation or under construction and arctic oil and gas production forecast to grow 20% over the next five years. Western banks, estimated to have provided $314bn in financing for Arctic carbon projects, and western oil majors like France’s TotalEnergies and US-based ConocoPhillips are investing in projects alongside state-owned and state-backed companies like the China National Petroleum Company or China’s Silk Road Fund. ELMAT: How do the Europeans plan to duplicate that amount f oil&gas elsewhere? TotalEnergies, for example, is investing in two giant Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) sites with Russia’s Novatek and Chinese state-backed investors in the Russian Arctic, Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2, expected to come on stream over the next few years. New routes. Second, as Arctic ice disappears, sea routes that were once impassable for much of the year are being opened up. On one side, the Northern Sea Route runs from the Bering Strait in the east to Kara Gate in the west, covering 2,500 miles along Russia’s northernmost coast. On the other, the Northwest Passage traverses the coasts of Canada and Alaska. As the Arctic ice retreats, these stretches of ocean transform into profitable transport routes. Earlier forecasts suggested the Arctic routes would only become generally commercially viable by 2040, but a combination of faster ice melt and international competition is pushing for a faster rate of adoption. Cargo volumes along the Northern Sea Route have hit record highs, with traffic increasing 15-fold over the last decade – the majority being LNG, which is in increasingly high demand. Five years ago, virtually no shipping passed during the winter months; last winter an average of 20 vessels a day were making use of the route. Meanwhile, the first unassisted, icebreaker-free winter crossing of the Northeast Passage was made in 2020 by a Norwegian ship, shaving 3,000 nautical miles off the journey from South Korea to France. Despite the climatic challenges, the appeal of shipping across the top of the world was put simply over a decade ago by Vladimir Putin: “The shortest route between Europe’s largest markets and the Asia-Pacific region lies across the Arctic.” The distance over the top of the globe from, say, east Asia to Europe is much shorter than the current route via the Suez Canal: around 3,000 nautical miles and 10-15 days shorter. The savings could be enormous: one estimate for China alone suggests $60bn to $120bn is at stake. China’s interest in new trade routes is clear. 80% of its current oil imports come through the Malacca Straits between Malaysia and Indonesia, creating a potential pinch-point for a hostile power to close. Exports into Europe must travel through the Suez Canal, whilst those heading for North America face the Panama canal, controlled by the eponymous US ally. As the Ever Given’s blockage of the Suez graphically demonstrated, disruption to any of these chokepoints could threaten economic chaos. full article here novaramedia.com