Article Image

IPFS News Link • Oil

Trump Asks Putin for Help in Oil War, Here Are Putin's Conditions

• https://russia-insider.com, Mike Whitney

The two leaders talked briefly about the coronavirus pandemic but quickly switched to Trump's real concern which is oil production.

For the last month, Saudi Arabia has been flooding the market with crude oil to force Russia to agree to deep production cuts. To his credit, Putin has stubbornly resisted Saudi coercion and maintained current output levels. As a result, prices have plummeted to an 18-year low of $20.09 per barrel which is well below the break-even rate that American frackers need to survive. In less than a month, the capital-intensive US shale oil industry has gone into a steep nosedive that has set off alarms on Wall Street where analysts expect that a wave of defaults will deliver a knockout blow to the big investment banks. That's why Trump decided to call Putin. He wants to see if he can persuade the Russian president into slashing production.

It's worth noting, that Putin remained stoically silent when the Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its alleged activities in Ukraine. Nor did the Russian president complain about Washington's meddling in Syria or its attempts to block Russia's pipelines to Germany and Bulgaria. (Nordstream and Southstream) But now that the shoe is on the other foot and US business interests are being hurt, Trump thinks nothing of calling Moscow for help. As one critic said, "It looks like the Trump team can dish it out, but it can't take it."


ppmsilvercosmetics.com/ERNEST/