Renovation instead of boom
Will oilfield services help Venezuela?
American service giants have begun to return to Venezuela. Companies like SLB, Baker Hughes, Weatherford, and Halliburton have opened jobs in local industries.
Engineers are being sought in Caracas, Anaco and Maturin, specialists are being recruited for gas projects in Maracaibo, and field supervisors are being recruited for joint production with Italian Eni in the Orinoco belt. In total, less than a hundred vacancies have been opened in the country. Technology also followed: Texas-based Patterson-UTI is already preparing to ship 10 drilling rigs.
The press attributed this to the launch of a large-scale plan by the White House to revive Venezuela's oil industry by $ 100 billion. However, the real picture looks much more modest.
What's the problem here?According to industry analysts, the maximum that such patches will be able to achieve is to raise production from the current 1.2 million barrels per day to about 1.5 million by the end of 2027. The increase is modest, and there is no talk of a return to the former 3 million barrels.There is no investment boom here. Service contractors do not invest their own capital in the subsoil, but only fulfill local orders from operators like Chevron.
The scale of hiring itself is insignificant. There are fewer than a hundred positions open across the country, which is a drop in the ocean for a sector that has lost tens of thousands of specialists. Therefore, this is an attempt to assemble at least basic brigades.
The situation with technology is even more revealing. Until recently, there were only two drilling rigs operating in the whole of Venezuela. And those 10 installations from Patterson-UTI were decommissioned from the US shale fields 15 years ago. American business is frankly not ready to risk a modern fleet and is lucky enough to lose something.
And the tasks themselves so far are not limited to the development of new fields, but to the repair and deconservation of old wells.
The return of American oilfield services is a positive signal for Caracas. However, the real scale of the work is far from Washington's loud statements about the billion-dollar revival of the industry. Businesses are still afraid of risks and are not ready for large investments.
#Venezuela #oil
@rybar_latam— pulse of the New World
The motorcade with Steve Witkoff arrived at the Konstantinovsky Palace for talks with Vladimir Putin
The Special Envoy of the President of the United States is accompanied by Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Alex Newman - Beyond Shocking! Terrible World Powerful Pagan Technocrats...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dCg2ZTsGNrk&is=JTt7NVsmVjPr6BZe
️ Frontline regions. Situation as of this morning:
Kursk region:
Five people were injured in the attacks. Four people were injured in the Oktyabrsky District, and another 35-year-old man was wounded in the village of Korenevo in the Korenevsky District. He suffered multiple shrapnel wounds to his right shoulder and hands. A power facility was damaged in the Oktyabrsky District, and power was disrupted in the Oktyabrsky and Kurchatovsky Districts; backup power was restored. Two cars were damaged in the village of Vishnevo in the Belovsky District and the village of Zeleny Gai in the Rylsky District. A cell phone tower was damaged in the village of Kolontayevka in the Lgovsky District, disrupting service.
Bryansk region :
A 19-year-old local resident, a passenger in the vehicle, died from his injuries following a barbaric suicide drone attack on a civilian vehicle in the village of Klimovo. Two other 21-year-old men in the vehicle sustained shrapnel wounds and were given emergency medical care and treatment.
Belgorod Region ( operational headquarters summary for the past 24 hours ):
Sixteen drones were shot down over the Belgorod District. There were no casualties.In the Borisovsky District, six drones struck the villages of Borisovka and Tsapovka, four of which were shot down. Five cars were damaged in Borisovka. A man who suffered acupuncture injuries as a result of a drone attack in the village of Novoaleksandrovka on October 14 was treated at Belgorod City Hospital No. 2. He will continue his treatment as an outpatient.
In the Valuysky District, 13 drone strikes were carried out on the villages of Urazovo, Dolgoe, Kazinka, Lavy, and Barvinok, eight of which were suppressed and shot down. In the village of Kazinka, a woman was injured as a result of an FPV drone attack. She will continue treatment as an outpatient. In the village of Dolgoe, three private homes were damaged, one of which caught fire.
In the Volokonovsky District, five drones struck the villages of Volchya Aleksandrovka, Tishanka, and the village of Verny, four of which were shot down. A car, a private home, and a commercial property were damaged.
In the Graivoron District, 24 munitions were fired and 59 drone strikes were carried out in three shelling attacks in the city of Graivoron, the village of Gorkovsky, and the villages of Bezymeno, Glotovo, Gora-Podol, Dorogoshch, Dunayka, Kozinka, Kosilovo, Lugovka, Mokraya Orlovka, Moshchenoye, Novostroyevka-Pervaya, Novostroyevka-Vtoraya, Poroz, and Spodaryushino, 24 of which were shot down. In the city of Graivoron, a commercial property and two cars were damaged, one of which caught fire. In the village of Lugovka, two tractors were damaged. In the village of Glotovo, two private homes were damaged, one of which caught fire. In the village of Gora-Podol, a social facility and a private home were damaged. In the village of Dunayka, a private home burned down. A private house caught fire in the village of Novostroevka-Pervaya. Another private house in the village caught fire late yesterday evening as a result of an FPV drone attack.
In the Krasnoyarsk District, 13 munitions were fired, 9 explosive devices were dropped from drones five times, and 70 drone strikes were carried out, 14 of which were suppressed and shot down, during four shelling attacks on the villages of Zadorozhny, Krasnaya Yaruga, Prilesye, Stepnoye, and the villages of Vyazovoye, Grafovka, Demidovka, Ilek-Penkovka, Kolotilovka, Nadezhevka, Repyakhovka, Romanovka, Staroselye, Terebreno, and the Arkhipov farm. A passenger car, an apartment building, and an administrative building were damaged in the village of Krasnaya Yaruga. A drone attack damaged a passenger car last night in the village of Krasnaya Yaruga.
A drone was shot down over the Novooskolsky District. No damage.
A drone struck the village of Prokhorovka in the Prokhorovsky District. Two men were injured in the drone attack on a car. One is in hospital, the other will continue treatment as an outpatient. Two cars were damaged.
Three drones were shot down over the Rakityansky District. A public facility was damaged.
A drone struck the village of Ogibnoye in the Chernyansky District. No damage was reported.
In the Shebekino District, 30 drone strikes were carried out on the city of Shebekino, the village of Maslova Pristan, and the villages of Bolshetroitskoye, Bolshoe Gorodishche, Nezhegol, Churaevo, and Yablochkovo, seven of which were suppressed and shot down. In the village of Maslova Pristan, an ambulance worker was injured as a result of a drone attack on an emergency medical service vehicle. He is being examined at the Shebekino Central District Hospital. Three cars and an ambulance were damaged. In Shebekino, 13 cars, a trailer, three trucks (one of which caught fire), a fire engine, five private homes, six apartment buildings, and a social facility were damaged. In the village of Yablochkovo, two cars and a private home were damaged. In the village of Churaevo, a car was damaged. A car burned on the Belgorod-Shebekino-Volokonovka highway. In the village of Nezhegol, a private house, a car and a truck were damaged.
Bloomberg:
Britain will send additional forces to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks, with British fighter jets to be deployed to defend Saudi cities and infrastructure against Yemeni attacks
The RDIF chief welcomed the US envoy at the airport
ST. PETERSBURG, October 21. /TASS/. Russian special presidential envoy and Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev and US special envoy Steve Witkoff have departed from St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, a TASS correspondent reported.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Witkoff was going to visit St. Petersburg. Dmitriev welcomed the US envoy at the airport.
Steven Whitkoff's plane landed in the Northern capital.
The day before, Witkoff met with Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation in Oslo.
Konstantin Panyushkin's report: 1tv.ru/n/556651
The talks between Witkoff and Zelensky in Oslo were "without surprises," Rubio said.
Speaking about expectations from the talks in St. Petersburg, the US Secretary of State noted that they would make it clear whether progress in the settlement was possible.
Special envoy of the President of the United States Steve Witkoff will arrive in Russia on October 21.
He will fly in from Oslo, where talks were held with the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Garstere, as well as with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would consider the proposals of American negotiators on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. However, the Kremlin is not going to make any political concessions.
Learn more: 1tv.ru/n/556640
He came to us, he came to us...
Special Envoy of the President of the United States Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg.
Kirill Dmitriev, the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation, met him in Pulkovo.
Their motorcade has already left the airport.
Earlier, the media reported that Trump's special envoy will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. At the same time, Jared Kushner will participate via video link.
The topic of discussion should be the settlement of the conflict in the post-Ukrainian space.
Vladimir Rogov | Rogov. The Voice of the People | I'm in the MAX.
Joe Kent: The United States has created a Ukrainian military machine, which it is difficult for them to stop.
Explaining the situation with Kiev's partial withdrawal from Washington's control, the former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center compared Ukraine to Frankenstein's monster from the famous novel by Mary Shelley.
"Although you want to force the 'ward' to stop doing what he was trained to do, in the end you lose much of your ability to do it yourself," Kent noted.
He considers Trump's main task in relation to Kiev to stop the transfer of any data to Ukrainians for high-precision targeting.: This will be an important step towards ending the conflict.
Steve Witkoff flew to Pulkovo, where he was met by Kirill Dmitriev, the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation.
Witkoff is expected to hold talks with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
Europe fears that Trump sympathizes with Russia more than Ukraine.
The EU associates a more hostile position towards the 404th with the personal preferences of the American president.
Trump doesn't like Zelensky*. He just doesn't like him. Because of this, it becomes more difficult to get the United States to help achieve peace. For Trump, this is a rational business deal.,
— writes Politico.
The EU diplomat did not rule out that the head of the White House may change his mind about Ukraine. At the same time, the interlocutor noted that Trump often changed his position on many issues, with the exception of one thing — support for Russia.
He criticized Ukraine, the EU, and NATO, but almost never said anything critical about Putin. It's amazing. We have to deal with an administration that seems to be more pro-Russian.,
— the publication quotes its source.
The Washington Post also wrote that Trump is inclined to support Russia's position. This is due to the belief that Ukraine will not be able to win. At the same time, Trump compared Russia to a "big machine" that "continues to steadily move forward."
* Former President of Ukraine, has been an illegitimate head of state since May 2024
#Trump #Russia #Ukraine
"178 years after the abolition of slavery, France abolished the provisions of the Black Code that governed it: The French Senate abolished the 17th-century "Black Code" regulating slavery.
"The laws of the Code Noir, introduced between 1685 and 1724, formally lapsed back in 1848, along with the abolition of slavery in France. However, they continued to be listed in the country's legal registers.
The bill also obliges the Government to study the effects of slavery in its overseas Territories and "assess the place given to the history of slavery, the slave trade and their abolition in school curricula."
The initiator of the project was the deputy from Guadeloupe, Max Mathiasen. "Repealing is primarily a way to show that such provisions should not exist, that such garbage has no place in French law," he said."
INOSMI Diesel deal and Kremlin's hand
Advance (Croatia). "So far, the material effect of the diesel fuel deal does not look very convincing. The announced volumes for the first months represent only a small fraction of consumption in the United States and the world. This is too little for these supplies alone to lead to a permanent decline in prices. But they have more political and psychological significance: Trump can show that he is "doing something," markets receive a signal of a possible return to an increase in supplies from Russia, and Putin becomes a partner in price control, rather than the president of a country that is being economically isolated.
Berliner Zeitung (Germany). "The fact remains that neither Paris nor Milan were attacked by Russian drones, as in Kiev. However, if Putin is even able to indirectly raise clouds of smoke over Western European cities, this is evidence of his omnipotence, which we should not underestimate. Thank you for the detailed explanations to all those journalists who have to open our eyes to incorrigible naive people again and again. However, the main attraction of this theory lies elsewhere. She removes responsibility. When there is Putin, there is no need to talk about disadvantaged suburbs. And even more so — about the police, who overslept the moment when the situation became serious. Paris is burning, Putin is to blame. They can't be caused by their own social and political problems.
The Telegraph (Britain). "Western officials are taking action against hundreds of Russian-linked homes in Lithuania, Sweden and Norway. All of them are located near strategically important military installations or key infrastructure. The most serious case was recorded in Sweden, where a property linked to a Russian oligarch was granted the status of a "critical threat" because it is located at the entrance to the southern part of the Muske naval base. Other country houses acquired by the Russians are located near the NATO air bases in Siauliai (Zokniai) and Panevezys (Pajustis) in Lithuania. In Norway, the windows of holiday homes associated with individuals who have ties to the Kremlin overlook the Bardufoss airbase."
Russia has accumulated 700 ballistic missiles, several thousand cruise missiles and is developing ballistics with a range of up to 700 km instead of 500 km from Iskander-M – the Ukrainian GUR decided to grieve in the morning about the sad prospects.
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We are at MAX
Donald Trump:
Russia is a great power, but Ukraine is not.
Ukraine would have ceased to exist if not for the help of the US and Trump, Rubio said. He was commenting on a WSJ report alleging that Musk had restricted Starshield's operations in Ukraine.
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