Trump's Reverse Nixon Strategy: Bring Russia In, Shut China Out
Dips Into Strategic Oil Reserve Again Amid Supply Disruptions NASA's solid-state battery survived minus… Robert Berke is an energy financial analyst with experience as a government consultant to the State of Alaska.
On October 9, hours after a phone call between President Trump and President Putin, the Treasury Department issued a six-month waiver allowing Russian diesel to be sold on the global market.
The stated aim is to bring down fuel prices before the November 3 midterms.
But I believe the deal is more consequential than that.
It fits a larger strategy: for the United States to control as much of the world’s energy supply as possible, while denying it to its chief rival, China.
Since US forcescapturedPresident Maduro in January, Washington has effectivelycontrolledthe country’s oil exports, and shipments to China, once Venezuela’s largest customer, have collapsed.
China was the largest buyer of Iranian oil, and with the Strait of Hormuz closed, Gulf and Iranian energy has been choked off from China and the rest of the world, sending prices soaring.
The President now claims “total control” of the Strait.
Whatever the truth of that claim, a closed Hormuz does exactly what the strategy requires: it starves China of Middle Eastern supply.
With Gulf oil cut off, Russia has become China’s major energy supplier.
The diesel waiver is a first step toward easing sanctions on Russian energy, reversing that flow back toward the West, and bringing US oil companies back to tap Russia’s vast reserves.
The larger prize may be Russian gas for Europe.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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