The Biden administration policies are falling apart. It is clear that Biden’s track record of being wrong on every major policy decision before becoming president continues on. First, it was the disastrous policy at the border, when the administration used migrants as political pawns to win an election. That led to our border being filled with exploited and abused immigrants. Now, it is the swift withdrawal from Afghanistan, where cities are falling with reports of executions of soldiers and forced marriages between women to soldiers.
It makes the failed and foolish energy policies look insignificant to the mess this administration has created. The Biden administration’s disjointed energy policy is a disaster. It has caused rising gas prices and they are getting the blame as Biden’s poll numbers tank. A Fox News poll asked 1,002 random registered voters if rising grocery/gas/housing costs have “caused hardship for your family.” A full 70% answered yes on grocery prices, 67% said yes on gas prices and 53% said yes on housing costs.
The Biden administration is now begging OPEC to raise oil production while it restricts oil production from U.S. producers and refuses to ask our jilted allies in Canada. Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline after Canada invested over $1 billion to build in the U.S. This shows an administration that is either inept or dogmatic to an agenda no matter how many people suffer.
The Wall Street Journal reported: “The Taliban completed the seizure of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and the Islamist movement’s birthplace, and took into custody a warlord who organized the failed defenses of the western city of Herat. Combined with other advances, including the capture of the provincial capital of Helmand, the fall of these two major cities has given the Taliban full control of southern and western Afghanistan, allowing the insurgent movement to pool its forces for a final march on Kabul.
The U.S. has already launched the drawdown of its large embassy in Kabul, sending troops to evacuate most of the staff as it cuts the diplomatic presence to an essential core. Other Western embassies are readying similar plans, fearing that the Taliban could lay siege to the Afghan capital within days, according to the Journal. It kind of reminds you of the fall of Saigon or perhaps the Obama withdrawal from Iraq that created ISIS. You remember ISIS don’t you? The JV Team. But what makes this even sadder are reports, if true, of horrific war crimes.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Afghans pouring into Kabul and those still in Taliban-held areas say they have witnessed unprovoked attacks on civilians and executions of captured soldiers. In addition, they say Taliban commanders have demanded that communities turn over unmarried women to become “wives” for their fighters—a form of sexual violence, human-rights groups say. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Thursday that it had received reports of the Taliban executing members of the Afghan military who had surrendered. “Deeply disturbing & could constitute war crimes,” the embassy said on Twitter.
A Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied the group had killed any prisoners, saying that would violate its principles. He also said allegations that the Taliban was forcing women into marriage were false, and that such actions would be contrary to the rules of Islam and violate cultural tradition, according to the Wall Street Journal. Based on the history of the Taliban, I have reason to not believe that denial by the Taliban spokesman. I would tend to believe the reports of murder and rape perpetrated by Taliban soldiers.
Biden’s policies of not investing in fossil fuels that are not politically correct continues to take their toll on U.S. energy production. Just today Reuters reported that the third-largest U.S. public pension fund on Thursday said it is launching reviews over climate concerns on $640 million invested in 42 shale oil and gas firms, including ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Hess (NYSE:HES), and Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD).
There are signs that OPEC is starting to raise output like they said they would. Javier Blas at Bloomberg reports that, “Saudi oil production rose to nearly 9.5 million barrels per day (m b/d) in July and it’s further increasing in August to 9.6m b/d. By next month, it will hit 9.7 million barrels a day. He reminds us that the average Saudi output in the 3 months before the pandemic (Dec19-Feb20) was 9.7m b/d.
Short-term the crude oil market is back in an uptrend but it is in a bit of a no-mans-land and it could take a few days to gather steam for another run. If COVID concerns ease a bit, then reports of falling global oil inventories should ignite another rally. We saw very strong global crude draws last week of 15.5mb or 2mbpd. According to Genscape, oil supply at Cushing, OK, fell 1,839,110 million barrels from Tuesday. Bloomberg reports that the IEA and OPEC both see stronger growth in non-OPEC supply than they did a month ago. But much of that is simply a reflection of the supply deal reached by OPEC+ producers on July 18, shortly after that month’s forecasts had been published. That agreement will see the group’s overall output target lifted by 400,000 barrels a day each month until all of the crude removed from the market in 2020 has been restored — a process that should last until September 2022, if there are no further changes.
Natural gas fell after the EIA reported that working gas in storage was 2,776 Bcf as of Friday, August 6, 2021, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 49 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 548 Bcf less than last year at this time and 178 Bcf below the five-year average of 2,954 Bcf. At 2,776 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.
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