blockade

Saudi Arabia’s ace in the hole to break the Iranian blockade in Hormuz

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Iran’s survival strategy in this war is based on a tactic of geopolitical suffocation: strangling the Strait of Hormuz to impose an unbearable economic cost on the West. However, while the financial market blindly speculates with express truces and the price of fuel follows its own dynamics at the pumps, the physical reality on the ground is about to change. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have a logistical “antidote” capable of rescuing up to 7 million of those barrels, radically changing the equation and breaking Iranian blackmail. The “antidote” in the desert. This lifeline was not improvised yesterday. Known as the East-West Pipeline (or Petroline), It began to be built in the 80s for fear that the war between Iran and Iraq will paralyze the Persian Gulf. According to Middle East Eye, It is a pharaonic artery of some 1,200 kilometers that winds through the Arabian desert, connecting the gigantic extraction fields in the east directly with the port terminal of Yanbu, bathed by the waters of the Red Sea. In this way, the crude oil can go out into the world without coming into the range of the Iranian missiles in Hormuz. As confirmed by the CEO of Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, in Financial Timesthe company is working around the clock to raise pumping to the pipeline’s maximum capacity: 7 million barrels per day. Before the crisis, only 2.8 million barrels circulated there. Nasser detailed that about 2 million barrels will remain to feed its refineries on the west coast, leaving the not inconsiderable figure of 5 million barrels per day ready for the global market. The machinery in motion. Saudi Arabia has stepped on the accelerator. “We should reach maximum capacity in a couple of days,” said the head of Aramco, according to statements collected by Reuters. If Riyadh manages to consolidate this route, the kingdom will be able to export close to 70% of its usual shipments. The energy analyst Javier Blas underlines in your column for Bloomberg that right now the critical thing is to look at the flow export outside of Hormuz, and not so much in wellhead production. And shipping data supports this frenetic activity: Bloomberg has detailed as an “armada” of at least 25 supertankers (known as VLCCs) have changed course and are sailing towards the port of Yanbu to load this lifesaving crude oil. Adding to this ball of oxygen is the effort of the United Arab Emirates. Through their Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, which also bypasses the dangerous strait to exit the Gulf of Oman, they are providing between 1.5 and 2 million additional barrels per day, according to the data of Wall Street Journal. The small print. However, as with any large-scale emergency logistics operation, there is no magic wand. Experts warn of several blind spots in this strategy: The port funnel: According to the agency Argus MediaAlthough the Saudi pipeline manages to transport 5 million barrels for export, the port of Yanbu has its own limits. Its nominal loading capacity is about 4.5 million barrels per day in two terminals, but market sources place the proven effective capacity closer to 4 million. The fuel crisis (distillates): As Arne Lohmann Rasmussen warns, analyst cited by Middle East Eyethe current problem goes beyond crude oil; It is a diesel and aviation fuel crisis. The pipeline East-West It transports crude oil, not refined products. This leaves markets such as Europe, which were highly dependent on Middle Eastern refineries (such as the gigantic Emirati Ruwais plant, recently hit by a drone). The Houthi threat and the collapse of the tanks: Moving the oil outlet to the Red Sea returns the spotlight to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. As Greg Priddy points outships loading in Yanbu bound for Asia will have to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, exposing themselves to drone attacks. Added to this is that, faced with the inability to remove ships through Hormuz, the Gulf countries are filling their storage reserves to the limit, forcing Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq to drastically cut extraction from their wells, as it has progressed Bloomberg. Buying time in the “Battle of the pipelines”. Nobody in the oil industry deceives anyone. Aramco’s own CEO admitted the “catastrophic consequences” What would a prolongation of this scenario have for the world economy? As Blas concludesthese alternative pipelines do not replace the opening of the Strait of Hormuz permanently. Its main mission is another: to buy valuable time. If the Saudi-Emirati duo manages to get this enormous pipeline to spit millions of barrels into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman, they will stop the panic at the Western pumps and take away Iran’s main negotiating asset. Far from the political and stock market noise, the resolution of this crisis is being fought in the logistical desert. Image | Aramco Xataka | Light and gas have become luxury items. Europe’s plan is to intervene in prices no matter what the cost

The big winner of the Hormuz blockade is the country that the West has tried to suffocate for years: Russia

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The script was written and the West was already celebrating the definitive economic strangulation of Russia. However, geopolitics has a bad habit of blowing up office plans. Today, the world is witnessing a historical paradox: the United States has just opened the back door to Vladimir Putin’s oil to try to stop a global energy collapse. The war between the United States and Israel against Iran has set the markets on fire, pushing up barrel prices above 100 dollars. Faced with the abyss of an unprecedented crisis, diplomacy has had to surrender to the stubborn reality of infrastructure. The “digital fog” and an emergency rescue. To understand the magnitude of the paralysis you have to look at the maritime traffic monitors. As detailed Bloombergthe Strait of Hormuz has become a “digital fog.” The few ships that dare to sail do so by turning off their location transponders (AIS) and suffering constant interference and GPS spoofing (spoofing) fruit of electronic warfare. In this scenario of physical suffocation, India was on the brink of collapse. The Asian giant is heavily dependent on imports from the Middle East, and the closure of Hormuz has cut off its rennet supplies. Reuters reported last week that state refineries like MRPL (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.) have been forced to close entire processing units due to the simple and simple shortage of crude oil. The unexpected lifesaver? In a turn of events, the US administration has had to swallow its own sanctions. As confirmed The Moscow Times and it is observed in the official OFAC document (the Treasury Department’s General License 133), the United States has issued a temporary 30-day waiver, valid until April 4, 2026, allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil loaded on vessels by March 5. Paradoxically, how to explain BloombergIndia had drastically reduced its purchases from Moscow at the beginning of the year after facing the threat of punitive 50% tariffs from Trump himself. Now, cornered by the crisis, dozens of Russian oil tankers that were wandering aimlessly are changing their coordinates on the high seas to come to the rescue of Indian ports. The political story versus the reality of the market. Officially, Washington tries to minimize the impact of this capitulation. In statements collected by The Kyiv Independentthe US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, assured that “there is no change in policy towards Russia” and that the exemption is only a “pragmatic decision.” For his part, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended that this measure “will not provide significant financial benefits to the Russian government” as it is applied only to crude oil stranded at sea. But the reality of the markets tells a very different story. According to CNBCRussian crude oil of the Ural variety has gone from being sold with humiliating discounts of between 10 and 20 dollars, to being traded at a historical premium of between 2 and 4 dollars above the barrel of Brent in its deliveries to India. This injection of capital to Moscow has unleashed an internal political storm. The Democrats They have demanded Trump to immediately reverse the exemption, accusing him of strengthening an adversary. From the humanitarian field, the NGO Global Witness, cited by Guardian, has been blunt, accusing the White House of “feeding Putin’s war machine” to cover up a price crisis that the United States itself has unleashed. Putin rubs his hands. To understand the magnitude of the Russian victory, you have to look at where they were just a month ago. Bloomberg, in your market analysishighlights that Russian exports were under unprecedented pressure. The Kremlin had nearly 140 million barrels stuck in the sea (65% more than usual), and was forced into a suicidal price war against Iran to try to place its surpluses in the limited Chinese refineries. Overnight, the Hormuz blockade removed all of its Middle Eastern competition from the equation. The crisis has been a gift from heaven. From Moscow they don’t even hide. How to collect CNBCKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly boasted to the press: “We are seeing a significant increase in demand for Russian energy resources in connection with the war in Iran,” reminding the world that Russia “remains a reliable supplier.” Hurt pride and a sea of ​​uncertainty. As Russian ships sail south, the battle of public perception rages in India. Although in the BBC estimates that the country It barely has crude oil reserves for about 25 days, the Indian government is trying to project absolute calm. As reported Mashable Indiaauthorities insist that “there is no shortage in the world.” However, on social networks the narrative is one of deep sovereignist indignation. Politicians like Rajiv Shukla cried out on social network X against American paternalism: “Who is the United States to dictate to us that we can only buy oil from Russia for a month?” Added to this is the harsh reality that there are no easy alternatives. Although Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates They have pipelines to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, its maximum capacity barely covers a fraction of the 20 million barrels per day that the world has just lost. The laws of thermodynamics do not understand sanctions. This whole scenario returns us to a conclusion that We already analyzed in the recent crisis of the Druzhba pipeline in Europe. The West has spent years writing laws, imposing price caps and signing embargoes on elegant offices to isolate Russia. But geopolitics always ends up submitting to mathematics and thermodynamics. While China watches the crisis calmly, with its reserves filled to the brim after years of silent strategic purchases, the European Union and the United States have had to swallow their own sanctions in record time to avoid collapse. The energy embargo on Russia has proven to be a gigantic house of cards; It only took someone to cut off the passage through the Strait of Hormuz for everything to collapse. Image | Coded and kremlin.ru Xataka | The EU has a perfect plan to suffocate Russia. The … Read more

Huawei arrived at MWC as if the European blockade attempt had not happened. And he left as one of the great protagonists

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There are images that summarize geopolitical tension better than any official document. One of them occurred in Barcelona during the last Mobile World Congress. While several European capitals debate how to reduce the presence of suppliers considered high risk in telecommunications networks, Huawei appeared at the sector’s largest fair with a presence that is difficult to ignore. The Chinese company arrived at the event with one of the most visible spaces in the venue and left as one of the most notable presences at the congress, a scene that helps to understand the current relationship between Europe and the technology giant. The image. When touring the pavilions of the Barcelona exhibition center, it was quickly understood the weight that Huawei had decided to exhibit. As Politico tells itthe company installed one of the largest exhibition spaces at the event and located it in one of the busiest areas of the complex, a location usually reserved for the most powerful actors in the industry. During the days of the fair, that stand became a constant crossing point for executives, operators and analysts who toured the congress. Prominence also on the agenda. Beyond its deployment within the venue, Huawei also took up space in the official MWC programming. Company executives participated in different sessions of the congress and the company was among the actors present in the debates on network infrastructures and technological evolution of the sector. That role was reinforced with a recognition at the Global Mobile Awardsthe awards that are presented every year during the event. The award for one of its network infrastructure developments served as a reminder that, despite the political climate surrounding the company in part of Europe, its technological weight within the industry remains relevant. The European contrast. The scene left by the MWC contrasts with the political climate that has surrounded Huawei in part of Europe for several years. The European Commission has been toughening its discourse for some time on suppliers considered high risk in critical telecommunications infrastructure and has encouraged Member States to reduce their dependence on them. In parallel, several European countries have taken measures to limit or withdraw their technology from sensitive networks, especially in the deployment of 5G, with decisions in countries such as Germany, which has prompted the withdrawal of Chinese components in critical parts of the networkor Sweden, that banned Huawei from its 5G networks. The result is a fragmented map in which regulatory pressure coexists with a more complex industrial reality. Spain has not been immune to the European debate on Huawei either, although its evolution has followed a less abrupt path than in other countries. The Government has not decreed a formal ban, but the company’s role in critical infrastructure has been progressively decreasing. In the deployment of 5G, the large operators have been replacing their technology in the network corethe part that manages user communications and data. The result is an intermediate scenario: Huawei is still present in the technological ecosystem, but its weight in the most sensitive points of the networks has been significantly reduced. A resilience already known. The Barcelona scene fits a pattern that Huawei has been repeating for years. Following the sanctions imposed by the United States in 2019, many analysts assumed that the company would be relegated to a secondary role in the global technology industry. However, the company quickly refocused its strategy: strengthened its domestic market in China, developed its own chips and opted for an independent software ecosystem after losing access to Google services. This adaptation process allowed the company to remain present in numerous segments of the sector, even in markets where its position had been weakened. The image that Huawei left at the MWC. We can interpret it as a moment within a longer story. For years, different actors have tried to stop the advance of the Chinese giant in the global technology industry. However, the company has continued to reorganize its strategy and maintain a presence in the sector. What happened in Barcelona suggests that this process is far from over. Quite the opposite: we are watching a new stage unfold in real time. Images | Huawei In Xataka | The US has decided to shoot itself in the foot and destroy one of the best AI companies in the country

The blockade of ingredients to Nazi Germany led Coca Cola to throw away whey and apple pulp

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When you open a Fanta, you hardly think about World War II. However, this fruit-flavored drink was born in 1940 within Nazi Germany. It was a solution from Coca-Cola, owner of the brand, to the blockade of ingredients that the allies imposed on the country. Quite a commercial turn that would result in one of the company’s most popular drinks. To block. In September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and the United Kingdom and France declared war on the Third Reich, the economic consequences spread far beyond the battle fronts. American multinationals that maintained industrial ties with German territory saw communication with their subsidiaries interrupted. The British naval blockade closed the ports; Trade with the United States, which had grown throughout the previous decade, stopped. The Coca-Cola situation. The company had been operating in Germany since 1929. Max Keith was a German manager who had assumed control of the subsidiary and built a giant infrastructure from scratch with bottling plants and distribution networks. He had even managed to produce on his own seven of the nine secret ingredients. But the concentrated syrup traveled to Germany from Atlanta, headquarters of Coca-Cola. When the embargo cut off that supply, the plants ground to a halt. The alternative was closure, but Keith did not give in. The remains. What he did was look for substitutes in what he had at hand, waste from other food industries. How did I count? expert Mark Pendergrast“what was left of what was left”: whey, a byproduct of cheese making; leftover apple pulp from cider presses; fruit peels; beet sugar, because cane sugar was a luxury… the resulting liquid was a brownish yellow, much less sweet than any modern soft drink, and its flavor changed from batch to batch depending on what ingredients were available. A name. Keith gathered his team to name the drink. He asked them to use their imagination, Fantasy. And from there the name came directly, with the advantage that it worked in almost any language without the need for translation or phonetic adaptation. It was an immediate success: in 1943 Coca-Cola sold approximately three million cases of Fanta in Germany. AND although the soft drink never had a direct connection with the NazisKeith did manage to integrate his advertising into the regime’s events, including the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In fact, he could have registered Fanta in his own name, but he did not do so. A success. Fanta was not drunk solely as a soft drink. Sugar rationing was so severe in wartime Germany that in many German homes it was used for sweeten soups and stews. Keith had obtained a partial exemption from sugar rationing in 1941, making it not only a soft drink, but also an accessible sweetener. It was not an isolated case. Fanta was not a rarity. The World War II food industry reformulated several products forced by embargoes and rationing. Nescafé, launched in 1938arose from the need to dispose of surplus Brazilian coffee at a time of commercial crisis: its soluble format allowed it to be distributed under difficult logistical conditions, and it became a standard supply for the American army. Margarine was a substitute for butter in times of Napoleonic shortages, and experienced a second massive expansion in Europe in the 1940s because butter was rationed. Post-war. When Coca-Cola relaunched Fanta in Naples in April 1955 with an orange formula made from local citrus, the name was the only thing connecting it to post-war Germany. The Italian company SNIBEG had developed the recipe on its own and Coca-Cola bought itgiving it the name of the one who already had the intellectual property. From there it grew: it arrived in the United States in 1958 and expanded globally throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Conflictive spot. However, the drink’s German past loomed large over the brand in 2015, when Coca-Cola launched a special edition in Germany for Fanta’s 75th anniversary. It was a reissue of the original recipe, with 30% whey and apple extract, distributed in glass bottles that evoked the design of the 1940s. He video campaign was especially inappropriatesince he only talked about ingenuity in times of scarcity and ignored the reason for that ingenuity: war embargoes against Nazi Germany. He concluded by inviting viewers to recover “the feeling of the good old days.” The video was removed after frontal rejection by the public and press. It was inevitable then to remember brands like Volkswagenwhose name directly alludes to the Nazi regime’s automotive program and whose plants used forced labor during the war; or like Hugo Bosswhich made military uniforms for the SS and Wehrmacht; or as the German subsidiary of IBM, Dehomagwhich provided the regime with punch card technology that allowed entire populations to be censused, classified, and tracked with a speed that manual methods made impossible. Origins that are sometimes murky due to the context, but that leave a few questions in the air about the inhumane role of any industry. Which includes the sparks of life. Header | Wikipedia

Spain enters the “Scandinavian blockade” and that causes a radical change starting December 23

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Something is happening in Scandinavia and that something is going to affect us directly. It’s already affecting us. Because, as I write, a huge anticyclonic blockade over the Nordic countries is channeling polar (continental) air towards southern Europe. Specifically towards us. What is a lock atmospheric? We speak of blocking when the “normal” flow of west-east winds is interrupted and the jet becomes more wavy (it has variations from north to south). This slows down the typical advance of storms and sends them to areas with little traffic. In Europe, to be specificwe speak of “Scandinavian blocking” when a mass of high pressure in the north of the continent reorganizes the storms and favors cold weather towards mid-latitudes. What translated it turns out: a complicated week. At least in Spain and the Balearic Islands, where low pressures in a context of cold inflows and episodes of stability can end up generating many problems. We talk about yellow warnings for rain in the entire northwest half and snow levels approaching 700 meters in many areas of the country (and 1,200 in the south) Why is this important? I mean, we’re in winter, right? Yes, it’s true: but we are also on Christmas Eve, one of the busiest times of the year. Snow at medium levels and, above all, frost increase exponentially the probability of incidents on roads, ports and mountain passes. That is to say, we do not need a “new Filomena” for the country to turn upside down and accidents to skyrocket. And all this without talking about the associated problems. Indeed. On the one hand, a pattern of low maximums tends to put pressure on electricity and heating demand (with very intense peaks and the possible risks involved). On the other hand, agriculture will suffer damage and the cold will be a terrible factor because it will help the flu epidemic keep wreaking havoc. The debate now is on the impact. That is, the usual debate. For the first time in many years, we are not going to have a warm Christmas and that, we already know, is going to cause problems. The issue is how many problems and to what extent we will be able to get them right. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | Lightning seems like a normal thing: in reality we have been trying to understand it for years and we have achieved it in a laboratory

The persistence of the blockade in the middle of May brings us storms and a lot of uncertainty

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In recent days, a Dana has been affecting a good part of the peninsular territory. And, even if it seems, the news is not that it will continue with us “favoring the development of intense and organized storms.” Will do it (As of Tuesday, “Depression will tend again to descend on latitude in an erratic and retrograde movement, approaching our geography”); But that begins to be the least. The most thing is that, for the umpteenth time, A persistent blocking pattern It continues to hinder the zonal circulation. A puzzle called “Spring of 2025”. As Sergio Escama explains in detailcurrent instability is due to three weather pieces: The anticyclone of the Azores that, despite being placed in its usual place, continues to have a strange elongation to the north (a kind of slide) that allows the arrival of Atlantic storms to the Peninsula. A dorsal that from Central Europe attracts the entire continent and arrives at the British Isles A continuous transfer of low pressures that passes between the two anticyclones and reaches our latitudes. Time-out! However, the next two days will be more stable and temperatures will tend to rise. Of course, the minimums will continue lower than normal and should not surprise us if we find frost in mid -May. But in a matter of days, the situation will become complicated again. Because, as I said, the Dana that now seems to get away will start going down back to us And, predictably, it will form a system with another that ascends from southern Africa. That is, between the Tuesday and Thursday a significant increase in stormy activity is expected. In fact, due to uncertainties associated with this type of phenomena, agencies are preparing: storms can be strong and t could affect any point in the country. Of course, the center, the north and some parts of the west of the peninsular territory They will take the worst part. What can we expect? In addition to low temperatures, What we are going to see They are storms (some very intense) that will cause rays, storms and hail. But that is in the short term, in the long term no one is very clear about what will happen. We are in a year in which many areas have seen rains as they did not see since the beginning of the records. March, as we know, has been One of the rainiest since 1961. The interesting thing is that May will also be above the average and nobody knows how all this will affect summer. So we enjoy it and cross our fingers so that this is not an anecdote, but a change of trend. Image | Tropical tidbits In Xataka | Spain has received more rain than ever this spring. And yet it is unable to get rid of the ghost of the drought

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