China Is Aggressively Reselling Russian Gas To Europe

BY TYLER DURDEN

TUESDAY, AUG 30, 2022 - 02:00 PM

One month ago, we were surprised to read how, despite a suppressed appetite for energy amid its housing crash and economic downturn (for which "zero covid" has emerged as a convenient scapegoat for emperor Xi), China has been soaking up more Russian natural gas so far this year, while imports from most other sources declined.

In July, the SCMP reported that according to Chinese customs data, in the first six months of the year, China bought a total of 2.35 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – valued at US$2.16 billion. The import volume increased by 28.7% year on year, with the value surging by 182%. It meant Russia has surpassed Indonesia and the United States to become China’s fourth-largest supplier of LNG so far this year!

This, of course, is not to be confused with pipeline gas, where Russian producer Gazprom recently announced that its daily supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline had reached a new all-time high (Russia is China’s second-largest pipeline natural gas supplier after Turkmenistan), and earlier revealed that the supply of Russian pipeline gas to China had increased by 63.4% in the first half of 2022.

What was behind this bizarre surge in Russian LNG imports, analysts speculated? After all, while China imports over half of the natural gas it consumes, with around two-thirds in the form of LNG, demand this year had fallen sharply amid economic headwinds and widespread shutdowns. In other words, why the surge in Russian LNG when i) domestic demand is just not there and ii) at the expense of everyone else?

“The increase in Russian LNG could be a displacement of cargoes going to Japan or South Korea because of sanctions, or weaker demand there,” said Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

One thing that was clear: China wanted to keep its arms-length gas dealing with Russia as unclear as possible, which is why the General Administration of Customs of China stopped publicizing the breakdown in trade volume for pipeline natural gas since the beginning of the year, with spokesman Li Kuiwen confirming that the move was to “protect the legitimate business rights and interests of the relevant importers and exporters”.

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Well, we now know the answer: China has been quietly reselling that evil, tainted Russian LNG to the one place that desperately needs it more than anything. Europe… and of course, it is charging a kidney's worth of markups in the process.

As the FT reported recently, "Europe’s fears of gas shortages heading into winter may have been circumvented, thanks to an unexpected white knight: China." The Nikkei-owned publications further notes that "the world’s largest buyer of liquefied natural gas is reselling some of its surplus LNG cargoes due to weak energy demand at home. This has provided the spot market with an ample supply that Europe has tapped, despite the higher prices."

What the FT ignores, perhaps intentionally, is that it's not "surplus" - after all, if it was Chinese imports of Russian LNG would collapse. No - the correct word to describe the LNG that China sells to Europe is Russian.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-aggressively-reselling-russian-gas-europe

Pennsylvania Abruptly Changes Voter Registration Form, Combines With Mail-In Ballot Application

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

TUESDAY, AUG 30, 2022 - 07:25 PM

Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In the middle of the election cycle, the Pennsylvania Department of State has suddenly changed its voter registration application form to include a mail-in ballot application.

The applications used to be on separate forms, but this seemingly small clerical change is creating logistical headaches for county election directors and causing voter confusion.

Registering to vote and seeking a mail-in ballot are two different actions requiring different responses in the county election offices.

“We use the voter registration application for one thing, we use a mail-in ballot application for something different,” Christa Miller, Lancaster County’s election director, told The Epoch Times. “One has to be done before the other. Obviously, you have to be a voter in order to get a detailed ballot, so that has to be processed first. And then your mail-in ballot application can be processed. We also file them all completely different.”

All voter registration applications are filed together, and mail-in ballot applications are filed separately. That is because, as per state law, county election offices must mail an application each year to everyone who asked to be on the permanent mail-in ballot list.

“In February, we have to send them an application for that calendar year,” Miller said. Then the voter must send it back, confirming they want to participate in mail-in voting for the year. The office files the mail-in applications alphabetically.

Procedure Changed in Middle of Election Cycle

Between the May primary and the November general election, the county elections office fields a lot of calls from voters who want to verify they checked the mail-in ballot box or to check the address where the ballot will be sent.

Instead of going though something like 400,000 voter registration forms, it’s easier to go through 30,000 specific mail-in ballot forms.

The Department of State combined the documents and implemented the new form on Aug. 19, which was 13 weeks after the primary and just 11 weeks before the general election.

Now the county is processing the first half of the form—getting a person registered to vote—and then making a copy of the form to process the mail-in ballot portion and file that copy separately.

Voters have questions about the new form, too, Miller said. They are not sure if they are registering to vote or registering for mail-in voting, so it has taken some education.

“As election officials, we asked [the state] to wait until December. This is going to take voter education and explaining how the new form works,” Miller said. “There’s a big election coming up in November. I think everybody in Pennsylvania knows that. And all we wanted to do was wait until December to let us keep our offices going the way that they’re going. Not having to teach our staff new ways of doing things, and voters new ways of doing things. You know, keep things the same at least through November.”

Jonathan Marks, deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of State, told The Philadelphia Inquirer the goal of the change is to simplify the process, so voters don’t have to fill out two forms.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pennsylvania-abruptly-changes-voter-registration-form-combines-mail-ballot-application