Djibouti Rejects Ethiopia’s Red Sea Port Plan

Bloomberg October 20, 2023

By Simon Marks (Bloomberg) — Djibouti joined Eritrea and Somalia in rejecting an appeal from Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to grant his country direct access to a port on the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

“Our two countries have always maintained strong, friendly relations,” said Alexis Mohamed, a senior adviser to Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh. “But you should also know that Djibouti is a sovereign country, and therefore, our territorial integrity is not questionable, neither today nor tomorrow.”

Abiy has identified sea access as a strategic objective for landlocked Ethiopia and warned that failure to secure it could lead to conflict down the road. In a televised lecture, he called for talks with neighboring countries and suggested that they could be given shares in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in return for similar stakes in their ports. He also referenced the nineteenth century Abyssinian warrior, Ras Alula Abanega, who said the Red Sea was Ethiopia’s “natural boundary.”

Earlier this week, Eritrea described Abiy’s comments as “excessive” and said “the affair has perplexed all concerned observers,” while Somalia’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Omar said his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were “sacrosanct and not open for discussion.”

Abiy’s push comes as he struggles to quell widespread domestic dissent, particularly in the northern Amhara region where militia members are resisting efforts to incorporate them in the national army. His administration is also in talks to restructure its debt after its finances were hammered by the global pandemic and a two-year civil war with rebels from the Tigray region.

On Thursday, the prime minister’s office said he had visited China’s deep sea Yangshan Port, south of Shanghai, during an official state visit. He also held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang and Dilma Rousseff, the president of the New Development Bank. The multilateral lender was founded by the Brics group of developing countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and Ethiopia has been invited to join its ranks next year.

Abiy and Xi earlier this week announced that their relations would be elevated to a so-called “all-weather strategic partnership” to strengthen their friendship, mutual trust and bilateral engagement.

https://gcaptain.com/djibouti-rejects-ethiopias-red-sea-port-plan/

Oil Industry Titans Turn on Trump

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy (Bloomberg) — October 17, 2023

Oil industry leaders contributed top dollar to President Donald Trump in 2020. But now oil and gas titans are underwriting his GOP rivals instead.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley were the biggest beneficiaries of donations from oil and gas representatives in the third quarter, according to a Bloomberg review of new campaign finance disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission. Both Republicans have done fundraising tours through the oil patch, with DeSantis even going so far as to unveil his energy policy platform in front of a drilling rig in Midland last month.

And while some notable leaders have cut checks to Trump’s main presidential campaign committee — including Continental Resources Corp. founder Harold Hamm and offshore supply veteran Larry Rigdon — others are steering clear.

Take, for instance, Jeff Hildebrand, chief executive officer of Hilcorp Energy Co., and his wife Melinda Hildebrand, who have showered much of the Republican field with cash this year. Together, they sent $3,300 to North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, $3,300 to Haley, $3,300 to DeSantis, and, in late July, $6,600 to former Vice President Mike Pence and $3,300 to South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, disclosures show.

In the White House, Trump was an enthusiastic supporter of the oil and gas industry, who championed domestic production and stripped away federal regulations he said were standing in the way. But Trump’s unpredictability — for instance issuing surprise decrees blocking offshore oil leasing near the southeastern US in the weeks before the 2020 election — poses a hefty challenge to energy companies making investment decisions that can take decades to pay off. Candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination endorse broadly similar energy and environmental policies.

While contributions are lopsided now, donors generally coalesce behind nominees once they are chosen or appear to be a lock. In the third quarter, DeSantis and Haley outraised other GOP presidential candidates, based on a sampling of oil industry and Permian-focused donors.

Donations to presidential campaign committees are capped at $3,300 per candidate per election — or $6,600 for both the primary and the general contest.

Here’s a breakdown of some notable industry donations this year.

Nikki Haley

Haley has picked up financial support from a swath of oil executives with ties to the prolific Permian Basin that stretches across the Texas-New Mexico border. That includes $6,600 from Syed Javaid Anwar, the founder and chief executive officer of Midland Energy Inc., and $3,300 from Ben “Bud” Brigham, who founded a string of exploration companies and oilfield logistics provider Atlas Energy Solutions.

Executives of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. — the Permian powerhouse Exxon Mobil Corp. is buying for $60 billion — also have sent money to Haley, with $3,300 each from president Rich Dealy and executive vice president Mark Berg, as well as $6,600 from CEO Scott Sheffield in the second quarter. Sheffield’s son, Bryan Sheffield, the founder of Parsley Energy Inc., and his wife, Sharoll Sheffield, together donated $13,200.

Enterprise Products Partners leaders also threw their support behind Haley, with co-CEO Jim Teague giving $6,600 in March and co-CEO Randy Fowler contributing $3,300 in September.

Other notable Haley donors:

Tucker Bridwell, an oil industry veteran and former board member for Concho Resources Inc., Ram Energy Resources Inc., Petrohawk Energy Corp., and other firms, $6,600

Richard Kinder, chairman of Kinder Morgan Inc., and his wife Nancy Kinder, $6,600

Trevor Rees-Jones, president of Chief Oil & Gas LLC and founder of Rees-Jones Oil & Minerals, $6,600

Ray Hunt with Hunt Oil Co., $6,600

Hunter Hunt with Hunt Consolidated Inc., $6,600

Ron DeSantis

DeSantis wooed prominent Texans in September and has lured oil patch donations, including $3,300 each from Allan Bloxsom, president of Fort Apache Energy Inc.; Jonathan Barrett, chairman of the board of Battalion Oil Corp.; and Ken Waits, CEO of Mewbourne Oil Co.

Kelcy Warren, the chairman of pipeline operator Energy Transfer LP, and his wife Amy Warren, together contributed $13,200. By contrast, in 2020, Kelcy Warren backed Trump by giving $10 million to America First Action, a super political action committee, and $1 million to Trump Victory, which divided money between the former president’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and state parties. At the time, Amy Warren sent $1.1 million to Trump Victory. Super PACs, which work independently of campaigns, can accept unlimited donations.

Other notable DeSantis donors:

Canary LLC CEO Dan Eberhart gave $6,600, while his brother Jacob Eberhart and sister-in-law Kelli Eberhart each contributed $3,300 during the third quarter.

Alan Smith, CEO, Rockcliff Energy, $1,000

John Garrett with Fair Oil Co., $3,300

Donald Trump

One of Trump’s biggest oil industry supporters historically has been Hamm, the billionaire and Continental Resources founder who’s donated $769,400 to Trump Victory since 2016. Hamm also played an unofficial role as an energy adviser to Trump on the campaign trail in 2016 and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

But earlier this year, Hamm was instead contributing to other Republican contenders — with DeSantis and Haley each receiving $6,600. Hamm said he didn’t believe Trump could win the White House in 2024.

Hamm pivoted on Aug. 22, when he sent $3,300 to Trump’s campaign. Asked about the contribution, spokeswoman Kristin Thomas said only that “Mr. Hamm has consistently said that he will support anyone he believes will make a good president.”

https://gcaptain.com/oil-industry-titans-turn-on-trump/

Latvia Asks If NATO Halt Russian Baltic Shipping

By Aaron Eglitis (Bloomberg) October 20, 2023

By Aaron Eglitis (Bloomberg) NATO should consider a halt to Russian shipping in the Baltic Sea if evidence emerges that the Kremlin is behind the damage to a pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia, Latvia’s president said.

“The discussion should be about how we can close the Baltic Sea in order to protect our critical infrastructure” if Russia is found to be responsible, President Edgars Rinkevics told Latvia’s public broadcaster late Thursday. His office later clarified that the comments pertained to Russian shipping.

President Vladimir Putin has denied that the Kremlin was involved in the pipeline rupture to the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which was discovered earlier this month. North Atlantic Treaty Organization this week dispatched mine hunters, patrol aircraft and early warning planes to the Baltic Sea to safeguard underwater infrastructure.

NATO has the ability to stop shipping in the Baltic, Rinkevics said. While it was unclear how such an embargo would be imposed, disrupting Baltic trade would potentially impact Russian trade to St. Petersburg, the country’s second-largest city and a major conduit for a raft of key industries.

Finnish investigators said last week the link in the Gulf of Finland was most likely ruptured by a deliberate act of force rather than an explosion. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has said an “external party” was involved in the breach of the gas pipeline and two data cables, which were all damaged in different locations.

Finnish authorities completed a crime scene investigation at the damaged subsea gas pipeline, which began leaking Oct. 8. Samples collected from the seabed around the broken segment will undergo forensic analysis, the National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

The process “required several dives to the damaged object at a depth of dozens of meters,” according to the police. The plan is also to examine a wide swathe of the surrounding area.

https://gcaptain.com/latvia-asks-if-nato-halt-russian-baltic-shipping/

VESSEL DETECTION:

USNS LEROY GRUMMAN westbound in the Med south of Sardinia

It appears the Eisenhower Group is now in the Med and the small boys need to fuel up after the Atlantic crossing.

>>19774893

>>19774978

I think Mrs. Pig wants to remind you about something you were supposed to do