A Mixed Earnings Season for Oil and Gas Giants

LIbya’s Akakus Oil Company said on Monday that production at the Sharara oilfield (the country’s largest) had hit 285,000 bpd, representing a 10,000-bpd increase in a week’s time after being shuttered over political horse-jockeying over the now-tentatively resolved Central Bank scandal.

A drone strike on a Russian special forces academy in Chechnya is being attributed by the media to Ukraine; however, we do not have confirmation that Kyiv was behind the attack. It is equally possible that this is a continuation of the local feud between Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov and his counterparts elsewhere in the North Caucasus. There have been some reports suggesting the drone was launched from inside the North Caucasus. This North Caucasus feud began most notably with the shootout outside the Wildberries headquarters in Moscow in September. Kadyrov has created some powerful enemies as he attempts to expand his influence in the North Caucasus, beyond Chechnya, and with a particular eye on Dagestan (again, this was what Wildberries was about). Kadyrov is pointing the finger at Ukraine and vowing retaliation precisely because he will look weak if he concedes that it was his enemies in Dagestan. In his desperation, Kadyrov has also informed the world that he is using Ukrainian POWs as human shields to protect various targets.

In the Middle East, where oil markets were sorely disappointed that the Biden administration succeeded.