Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
There’s nothing to celebrate for Ukraine fan boys or FXPO in today’s news from Russia.
I guess those who have gorged themselves on all the lies about Ukraine’s invincible army are probably beyond help. It will be a very hard bounce for you when you hit reality, although doubtless the western media which has already spun the loss of 20% of Ukraine as a stunning military success will be working hard to spin the next unreality.
And the longer this goes on the worse it gets for FXPO shareholders. Maybe this is evidence that metaphorically speaking, turkeys do sometimes vote for Christmas.
About half of today’s fall occurred after 2PM which is when the market got wind of the likely escalation of the war in Ukraine. In that sense the share deal is indeed a non story.
But I’m afraid that the Ukraine fan boys who feast on WMSM propaganda of impending Russian defeat are deluded and should be ignored.
FXPO will never recover until this war is over. The UK government’s policy of prolonging it until some illusory Ukrainian victory is complicit in destroying shareholder value in FXPO.
Anyone still holding might find a nasty shock awaiting them. DYOR.
@Opp_Hunting - the cash figure excludes the gold inventory.
Banburyboy - it’s a fair and well made point and you could certainly be right.
My contention is that whilst it technically isn’t nationalisation, it would be an extra-legal state intrusion into a portion of a global market. In that sense, why would any potential O&G explorers bother investing in a UK jurisdiction which whimsically imposes a super tax followed by a price cap?
It would be a move directly counter to Truss’s often stated desire to get O&G exploration moving after years of government disdain if not contempt for the sector.
But the UK is in a fair mess, often of its own making. We can rule nothing in or out.
Interesting conjecture from Banburyboy, and to be fair you can’t rule it out although it’s a little implausible.
For Truss, a free marketeer, to basically seize NS assets and nationalise them, would further damage the UK’s shaky reputation as a stable business jurisdiction. It would also decimate attempts to encourage NS exploration.
That aside, I hold SQZ. But the ride might be bumpy.
Attempts to separate electricity from gas prices should have little impact on the price of gas. Moreover the market price of gas is not within the control of the EU to cap or manipulate. What they can do is cap the price to consumers /businesses and pay the difference. But they can no more control the market price (which remains a function of supply and demand) than they can control the weather or the price of any global commodity.
So for me this is more a reaction to the fall in market price today, noting that in the short term markets are prone to irrationality.
The fundamentals remain the same today as last week. On that basis SQZ remains good value IMO, cash rich, debt free, with upside potential from N Eigg, but DYOR.
I suggest that you read the post of JohnNth which contains a heavy dose of realism to counter the propagandised hope-casting which otherwise litters this thread.
I won’t repeat what John said. But I will add that Ukraine will ultimately fail in this much publicised ‘counter-offensive’. The reason for this is that whatever Ukraine might achieve tactically it is unable to match Russia strategically.
Russia has been remarkably restrained thus far. It has not for example attempted to destroy Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in the way that the West destroyed Iraqi and Serb cities in its own recent invasion /threatened invasion.
This has been interpreted in WMSM as indicating weakness, a lack of munitions frequently cited.
But the truth is that Russia has reserved escalatory options because it wishes to preserve escalation dominance.
Kiev may or may not achieve tactical victories (or what are presented as such) but the inescapable truth is that Russia will inflict defeat on Kiev because it has superior resources and military power and because this is an existential war for Russia.
For the West of course it’s vital that Ukraine continue fighting as long as it can (they don’t care one jot about how many more will die), and it’s important to present some ‘victory’ to the immiserised voters back home.
The ‘Kherson counter offensive’ is an important justification for continued fighting and for the poverty which is being extended to millions in the West.
I didn’t realise that one had to be invested in order to post on a particular board. That seems to be another rule made up by @Papucel, a rule which strangely he didn’t apply to himself when he posted on the RIO board warning everyone of my alleged status as a Kremlin bot.
I’ve made my point for now and will leave you to your own thoughts. But again I note that there are clearly some who seek to shut down debate by making inane and ludicrous slurs.
An example is the claim below that I am ‘intimidating’ others. By what? Encouraging thought? Suggesting that all may not be how it is portrayed by a media and elite who egregiously lied about recent past wars?
That’s an appeal to inquisitive critical analysis. Do your own research.
Oh please, those who think they know Russia’s invasion plans because the BBC told them ……. grow up. Russia had a force of 200k and supposedly intended to occupy Ukraine in 5 days. Even my cat knows that is ludicrous.
Again …… think! Don’t invest in FXPO purely on the basis of what UK media is telling you about Ukraine’s impending glorious victory. There’s a much higher chance of an escalating global war.
@Papucel - it’s wonderful that you have managed to find a few factually accurate statements among 6 months of western propaganda. But then they do report selective facts, and nobody disputes that Russia has suffered losses. It’s a war, and a prolonged one at that.
However, the accurate reporting of selective facts in no way obviates @rbrand’s contention that the West is guilty of mis-information and sometimes lies.
Who could forget the:
Russia is running out of missiles (March)
Putin is dying or even dead (for years)
Russian troops are mutinying
The whole world is against Russia
We will reduce the Rouble to rubble (Biden in March)
Ukraine is heroic and never guilty of anything
Ukraine is winning
Ukraine is just about to launch a devastating counter attack (still waiting)
I could go on. But it’s axiomatic that western media and ‘anonymous sources’ have fed the public a diet of lies or misinformation dressed up as informed sources.
Truth is the first casualty of war. If you want to believe western media as reliable and objective then feel free. I think that’s naive and foolish. Just as Russian and Ukrainian sources are likely to be equally biased.
Do your own research and think about FXPO. But open your eyes and minds to the possibility that what you hear 24/7, which almost entirely and intentionally omits any Russian perspective, is likely to be much less than a full picture.
On this board there are well meaning people totally brainwashed by western media, and there are realists. I hate to break it to you guys, but the Kremlin won’t be targeting this board with its ‘bots’.
As a realist I am of course dismissed as a ‘bot’. Perversely the reason I’m a ‘bot’ is that I don’t swallow the 24/7 western narrative. I don’t take the party line …… the easy option, the position believed by most in the west. This non conformity apparently makes me a brainwashed ‘bot’. Very perverse logic.
Yet what exactly is it that makes you so convinced that your elite, which egregiously lied to you about Iraq, is suddenly telling the truth?
Western sanctions supposed to destroy Russia’s economy appear to be destroying western economies. Recession, mass fuel poverty, inflation, interest rate rises, falling living standards ……. these inconvenient facts are blamed on ‘Putin’s war’ when really they are the result of the West’s reaction to Russia’s actions.
Someone even mentioned that India, China et al are reaping the benefits of cheap Russian energy. Yes they are. And who is really paying the cost ……. Europe as its international competitiveness is ruined.
Russia’s economy is suffering, but not anywhere nearly as bad as European politicians promised back in February when they singularly failed to mention that they would be crashing their own economies.
Meanwhile Ukraine suffers most of all. And while we wait for Putin to be replaced by a pro western leader (zero chance), and Russia to run out of ammunition (it won’t), and Ukraine’s glorious counter offensive (won’t happen), more people die and Europe sinks even further into the mire.
And FXPO weakens, its share price going nowhere, its production falling, its exports disrupted, its credibility damaged.
Realism.
It is pleasing that Papucel’s ludicrous defamatory warning on the Rio Tinto board has been removed. Childish attempts to stifle free speech should not be tolerated, and I’m pleased that someone saw fit to report his post.
My position is crystal clear. Pumping Ukraine with weapons is prolonging a war that Ukraine will not win. The UK and US are pursuing a morally bankrupt policy of using Ukraine as a hapless proxy tool to fight Russia. Ukraine is nothing more than an expendable pawn on the geo-political chess board.
So for FXPO investors, your interests are also being sacrificed because the longer this continues the more disruption there is to FXPO sales.
And let’s be under no illusions here. The US and UK have long histories of sponsoring ‘forever’ wars. The Afghan and Iraq debacles are the two most recent and egregious examples.
Ukraine is a tragedy which was years in the making. The war represents a lamentable failure of great power diplomacy and statecraft. History did not begin in February 2022. This should never have happened, but I’m afraid that US and NATO policy since the Bucharest Declaration of 2008 have one enormous assist in driving Russia to its military operation.
FXPO investors are rightly hoping for peace. We all should. Sadly, the decision makers in Washington, London, Kiev and Moscow seem to prefer war and the continuation of it - for their different reasons.
On a board about FXPO it takes one almighty act of delusion to pretend that the war is not the single most important factor impacting the FXPO share price.
The precipitous decline in the SP reflects this rather strongly.
Papucel - By all means report me for having a view which is different to yours. If that’s your version of a liberal tolerant society then I think it speaks volumes.
If reflecting reality as I see it is now ‘criminal propaganda’ then I fear for the future of my country. You are free to believe what you wish, and if that’s to parrot western media then knock yourself out. All I ask is that others should be free to respectfully disagree.
JohnNth - I agree with you regarding Russian war aims.
The original aim was the restoration of the 2 separatist republics of Donbas within their full administrative borders. This hasn’t changed.
The problem with Russia declaring a ceasefire is that it can’t be a unilateral one. Ukraine and its western backers still ostensibly have maximalist demands. Peace will take a willingness to negotiate on both sides. There is little sign of that from either side given the hot headed rhetoric and volume of weapons being pumped into Ukraine.
Let’s try to put a few things straight.
1. I’m not a professional investor and never claimed to be. I’m a realist not a ‘supporter’ of Russia or Ukraine. This isn’t football. It’s geo-politics. FXPO is a price taker when it comes to geo-politics. Investment decisions therefore need to be based on reality not hope.
2. Ukraine does not have the support of the whole world as Papucel bizarrely claimed. Indeed, it has the support of a minority of the world, mostly Europe, North America and a few Pacific states.
3. Most of the world is de facto neutral in this conflict. Part of the reason the West’s sanctions have been disastrously self harming is that only the West is prepared to shoot itself in the foot. Russia’s alleged ‘isolation’ is simply a propaganda lie. Russia is not sanctioned by most states. Fact.
4. US and UK have intentionally created a false narrative of threat inflation to justify the risky and self harming actions they have taken. There is literally zero evidence that Russia wants to re-create the Soviet Union much less invade further into Europe. Indeed, Putin has repudiated this nonsense.
5. But threat inflation creates unfortunate side effects. It makes diplomacy harder. And the absence of diplomacy is bad news for FXPO which sits in a war zone.
6. Anyone thinking ordinary Russians now despise Putin and want to join the ‘western club’ has consumed far too much propaganda. Russia is a regional nuclear armed power with different geo-strategic interests to the West. It isn’t going to fold, radically change, or surrender those interests. Note that geo strategy is founded on geography. History repeats because geography can’t be changed.
7. Ukraine will always face its larger neighbour to the east. The current Russophobic regime in Kiev which has engaged in a disastrous war will eventually need to change to one which accommodates geographical reality. That needs diplomacy not war based propaganda based on un-reality.
My view is that people should be aware that western propaganda of great Ukrainian resistance and the power of western support is aimed at western citizens. It shouldn’t, IMO, be factored into rational decision making regarding FXPO.
Some fantastical predictions in here of imminent Ukrainian victory in Kherson followed by humiliating Russian withdrawal from Donbas.
The western propaganda machine has been hugely successful in mis-leading its populations in an attempt to maintain an economic and proxy military war on Russia.
The only problem is that reality catches up. The sanctions are impacting Europe far more than Russia, and impoverishing your own citizens is not sustainable.
On the battlefield Ukraine has never launched a successful counter offensive, certainly not on the scale of Kherson. Swallow the hopium all you like but it isn’t going to happen. It’s pure propaganda. Kiev’s forces are de-graded, its military still retreating across most fronts, increasing numbers of units are surrendering or simply retreating. On its 4th or 5th round of mobilisations, it is running out of fighting age people.
Objectively, even BBC shows the map. It is Russia which is advancing. There’s nothing that will change that short of NATO direct involvement, and that’s not going to happen.
So yes, delude yourselves if you wish, believe that all will be different thanks to Himars as you once believed the same of Neptunes and javelins. The media will feed you until Washington decides that something must change.
In the interim Ukraine remains a sacrificial pawn to great power politics. London remains willing to plunge its economy into recession and citizens into grotesque fuel poverty. And we’ll all be fed the lies to make us believe it’s all worth it and Ukraine can prevail.
It can’t and it won’t, and Washington knows this. Meanwhile FXPO remains vulnerable. The longer this goes on the more likely Russia will be to continue to the Dniepr.
Conflict cheerleaders should be careful what they wish for.
There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ve passed peak ‘green’ enthusiasm. The euphoria of COP26 where the UK loudly proclaimed the end of coal is a distant memory of a by-gone age.
Even the UK is now planning to keep coal plants open through the winter. But what will really kill the ‘green’ band-wagon is a combination of inflation, falling living standards and geo-political events like the West’s kamikaze rush to eschew Russian oil and gas.
Because the truth is that when people can’t afford to heat and eat, they certainly won’t be buying electric cars or heat pumps, and politicians trying to sell this mantra will be laughed out of office in short order.
Yes of course the well off will continue to take advantage of subsidies for virtue signalling, but the cruel economic reality for ordinary people is that being ‘green’ is a third order priority in contemporary Britain and much of the West.
None of this means that HZM isn’t a good long term investment, but it’s a reality check for those with their heads in the clouds.
Come on people - I’m a realist not a Russian troll! The school of realism is alive and well in academic circles. It starts from a position of seeing the world as it is not as we would like it to be.
Blaming Russia for all the West’s ills is literally absurd. Pretending that Putin has no real support in Russia is equally delusional.
You may denounce me and report me but to be honest, if the UK has got to the state where anyone expressing a view which deviates from the ruling polemic is silenced, then the so called ‘free world’ has got serious problems.
As a realist I would suggest that Europe will not have peace and security until it learns to live with Russia. The consequences of failing to do this are too terrible to contemplate. Remember we have to operate in the world as it is, not as we would like it to be, acknowledging that our power is really not what it was.
Whilst some of you swallow the hopium which is served daily on western media, the reality is that Russia continues to make slow but steady gains towards the ‘liberation’ (as they call it) of the remainder of Donetsk oblast. It’s also manifestly true to say that Ukraine does not have the people resource base that Russia does. The West can pump in weapons but it can’t create fighting age Ukrainian men to replace the literally tens of thousands of men killed or injured.
Eventually Ukraine will be unable to continue because it can’t match Russian resources. Western media pumps out a different tune, but there’s no escaping reality, even for the old former imperial powers who so loudly cheer from the sidelines.
Another reality is that the FXPO share price continues its inexorable downward slide. War in Ukraine will cripple this company. The longer it continues the more crippled FXPO becomes.
Shareholders won’t like that, but FXPO needs peace asap and that means negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.