AT LEAST ITS NOT A NFT
Christie's to auction Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe estimated at $200 million
Agence France-Presse
March 21, 2022

A journalist takes photos during a press preview March 21, 2022 in New York as Christie's announces "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" by Andy Warhol will lead its Marquee Week of sales in May

 (TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP)

Christie's announced Monday that it will sell Andy Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" portrait of Marilyn Monroe for an estimated $200 million.

The auction house said it expects the painting to become the most expensive 20th century artwork when it goes up for auction in New York in May.

In a statement, Christie's described the 40 inch (100 centimeter) by 40 inch silk-screen work as "one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence."

Alex Rotter, head of 20th and 21st century art at Christie's, called the portrait "the most significant 20th century painting to come to auction in a generation."

"Andy Warhol's Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once," he said in a statement.

Warhol first began creating silkscreens of Monroe following her death in August 1962.

The pop artist produced four known as the "Shot Marilyns," all equal in size with different colored backgrounds.

The "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" portrait has her with a pink face, ruby lips, yellow hair and blue eye shadow set against a sage-blue backdrop.

At an unveiling at Christie's headquarters in Manhattan, Rotter said the portrait stood alongside Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon as "categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time."

Christie's is selling the work on behalf of the Zurich-based Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation.

All proceeds of the sale will benefit the foundation, which works to improve the lives of children around the world.

In 1998, Sotheby's sold the orange Marilyn one for $17 million.

ABOLISH THE SECOND AMENDMENT
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has just 33 words for the largest mass shooting this year

COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
March 21, 2022

Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News (screen grab)

On Saturday night what the State Police described as a “ gunfight” broke out at a car show in Dumas, Arkansas, leaving a 23-year old victim dead and 27 others injured – including six children, 19 months and older. It is the largest mass shooting of the year. Republican gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just 33 words to say about the devastating shootout in her state.

Arkansas’s current governor, Republican Asa Hutchinson, issued this statement on Sunday, calling the mass shooting “a total disregard of the value of life.”

The car show is part of an event that “provides family-friendly entertainment and raises money for scholarships and school supplies for underprivileged youths.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders also issued a statement, on Twitter only, not on any other of the social media accounts listed on her campaign website. “Prayers,” she offered, calling it “senseless and tragic,” and thanking law enforcement. It was just 33 words.

The Gun Violence Archive reports two of the children injured were one-year-olds, one was 8 years old, one 9, and one 11.

Huckabee Sanders just three days earlier, as veteran political commentator Charles Pierce has expertly noted, praised Arkansas as “God’s Country” because “you can get a 12 pack and a 12 gauge shotgun at your neighborhood Edward’s Food Giant!”

The photo she tweeted includes her, her husband, a Huckabee Sanders campaign bus, and signs advertising guns and ammo.

“God’s Country is apparently located somewhere between Deadwood and Tombstone. God should move to a better neighborhood. She’s not safe where She is,” observed Pierce.

Huckabee Sanders has said nothing more about the horrific gun violence, at least nothing on her social media accounts or published in news online.

US Capitol breach investigation expands to director of San Diego security company

2022/3/18 
© The San Diego Union-Tribune

Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, known as the QAnon Shaman, amid the U.S. Capitol riot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. -  FNORD

Brent Stirton/Getty Images North America/TNS

SAN DIEGO — The FBI is investigating the founder of a San Diego-based security company for his alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to a cellphone search warrant affidavit filed in federal court Thursday.

Jonathan Humphreys, 27, has been under investigation for several months, since Google geolocation data placed at least one of his devices inside the Capitol the afternoon of the violent insurgence, the affidavit states. Investigators later identified a man they believe to be Humphreys on Capitol surveillance cameras, as well as body-worn camera footage from Washington, D.C., police and in images sent in by tipsters, according to the affidavit.

The FBI searched Humphreys’ University City condominium and pickup truck for evidence in November, court records show. The investigation is ongoing, and no charges have been filed.

In an interview with task force officers in November, Humphreys acknowledged he had been in the Capitol during the riot and confirmed he was depicted in an image shown to him by the FBI, the affidavit states.

Humphreys, who is the founder and director of Humphreys National Security Company, declined to comment when reached Thursday by phone.

The investigation adds to a growing list of local ties to the insurrection, which aimed to prevent the certification of the results of the presidential election.

Ashli Babbitt, who lived in Ocean Beach and owned a pool supply company, was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while attempting to breach an inner window during the takeover attempt.

Two current or former San Diegans have been criminally charged. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washington sentenced Jeffrey “Alex” Smith, a Colorado resident who recently moved from Coronado, to three months in prison and two years of probation on a misdemeanor charge of illegally parading in the Capitol. The sentence confirmed an earlier tentative ruling in the case. And earlier this month, Philip Weisbecker, a county resident, pleaded guilty to the same charge.

According to investigators, Humphreys — dressed in a black business-style overcoat, blue-striped tie, black slacks and dress shoes — entered the Capitol through a broken window next to the Senate Wing doors.

Camera footage and geolocation data show that he roamed the building, taking photos with his phone and a body-worn camera attached to his lapel, according to the affidavit, which includes numerous surveillance images. Investigators say Humphreys appeared to lead a large group of people to the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Some followers subsequently broke down the doors to the California Democrat’s suite of offices, the affidavit says.

Later, Humphreys allegedly wandered into the Rotunda, where he lit a cigarette and then confronted a line of police officers attempting to push the mob out of the area, the affidavit states. The footage appears to show Humphreys turn his back on the riot line of officers and push against them with his back.

“At least two separate officers pushed back on Humphreys with their hands and batons,” the affidavit reads. “Over the course of a minute, Humphreys pushed against the officers twice, both times with his back.”

While he appears to plant his feet for the first push, investigators say, a hand is visible on Humphreys’ arm during the second push “leading to the possibility that another person was pushing Humphreys into the officers” in that instance.

When interviewed by the FBI, Humphreys told the investigators he went to the Capitol as part of a security contract for his company, and that other security guards were part of the contract, but “he declined to name the other guards or who or what he was hired to guard,” the affidavit says.

In his online company profile, Humphreys describes himself as a former Marine who was discharged after a training injury. The company specializes in deploying security guards as well as installing security systems. Its website highlights its “America First Policy,” which includes favoring veterans for hire and using American-made products.

“Above all else, HNSC is a company comprised of patriotic countrymen and women who are dedicated to the protection of The Constitution of the United States and the American People,” the policy states, in part.

WHITE SUPREMACY 

Tesla: White workers tormented Black war-blast victim with rocket-warning sounds, suit claims

2022/3/19
© The Mercury News

A Black former quality manager for electric car maker Tesla — who says he previously worked as a military contractor and was traumatized after serious blast injuries in Afghanistan — is claiming in a lawsuit that White co-workers tormented him with ringtones set to sound like incoming-rocket warnings, among other race-based abuses.

Marcellous Cage alleged in his lawsuit against Tesla that the company fired him for racist reasons and because he reported life-threatening safety violations in the plant.

“Mr. Cage was fired for two reasons: his commitment to safety and his race,” the lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court claimed.

The legal action follows a slew of similar race-based lawsuits, including one filed in February by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which claimed Black workers at the company’s Fremont facility were paid less than White workers, denied advancements, and faced daily racist abuse, including a noose drawn in a bathroom next to a reference to lynching and a racial slur. In October, a San Francisco federal court jury awarded a Black former worker almost $137 million after he sued Tesla over experiencing “daily racist epithets” in a workplace where colleagues drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the facility.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cage’s lawsuit and other suits claiming Tesla allowed widespread racism in its facilities.

Cage said in his suit, filed last month, that Tesla hired him in November 2018 as a project-quality manager, and charged him with creating and launching quality-control and inspection programs for construction work. He worked at both the Fremont factory and Tesla’s battery plant in Nevada, according to the suit.

About a month after his hiring, at the Nevada facility, Cage noticed that a White Tesla contractor he was working with had a phone ring tone that sounded like the rocket-alert warning Cage had experienced while working in Afghanistan, the suit claimed. “Mr. Cage quietly explained, in the presence of several co-workers, that hearing this particular ringtone was extremely disturbing to him, as he had been severely injured in explosions in Afghanistan two different times,” according to the suit. The man refused Cage’s request to change the tone, “opting instead to maliciously … keep the ringtone for the sole purpose of tormenting Mr. Cage,” the suit claimed. Then a White Tesla superintendent and several other White workers set their phones with the same tone, “purely to harass Mr. Cage,” the suit claimed.

In the Fremont factory, swastikas and the n-word were carved and scrawled in employee bathrooms throughout Cage’s employment, with Tesla taking no action, and similar racist symbols were routinely inscribed in portable toilets at the Nevada plant, the suit claimed.

Cage was subjected to hostile, racist treatment from the start of his work at Tesla, the suit alleged. Within his first two weeks, a White superintendent accused Cage — one of two Black workers on a 30-person team — of stealing stickers from him. Instead of asking about the stickers, the man and several other workers broke into Cage’s locked filing cabinet “on a vigilante mission to purportedly look for the missing stickers,” the suit claimed. Cage complained to higher-ups, who took no action, the suit alleged. When Cage stopped working on a project that was not compliant with regulations, a Tesla contractor threatened to beat him up and called him “boy,” the suit alleged. In another alleged incident, Cage’s manager, questioning his expense report, made a racist reference to barbecue, the suit claimed.

Cage also alleged that Tesla management failed to correct numerous serious safety violations because “Tesla’s commitments to unrealistic production goals and frantic efforts to ramp up its production, often to make good on rash promises, overrode any commitment to employee safety.”

The company, formerly headquartered in Palo Alto until a recent switch to Texas, last year was fined more than $140,000 for 22 worker-safety violations related to accidents and complaints at the Fremont factory, government data show.

Cage alleged in his suit that Tesla did not properly track worker injuries, and when Cage reported the problem to management, the company blamed employees for not reporting their injuries, the suit claimed.

While Cage was working at the Fremont plant, he discovered that unqualified inspectors from a contractor had been inspecting “critical construction elements” for more than two years, putting Tesla out of compliance with state and local codes, the suit alleged. “Tesla ignored the issues Mr. Cage raised, and even engaged the same firm for more inspection work soon thereafter,” the suit claimed.

In early 2020, Cage was reassigned to administrative work in a move by Tesla “intentionally designed to muzzle any future reporting by Mr. Cage,” the suit claimed. “The Director of Construction even expressly told him before the transfer: ‘Do not report any more deficiencies.’”

Later that year Cage was “deeply troubled to learn that several Tesla employees were severely injured as a result of safety code violations,” and he escalated his reporting to senior company leadership, the suit alleged. He was fired three months later, according to the suit.

Cage is seeking unspecified damages.

Ron DeSantis ‘Stop Woke’ Act could bar Disney from diversity trainings

Florida's new ‘Stop Woke’ act will stop private companies from doing diversity training

Jade Bremner
THE INDEPENDENT

Following passage of the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to sign into law another controversial piece of legislation – the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act – which could bar companies from diversity training.

Critics warn that the “Stop Woke” Act – introduced by the governor to codify orders prohibiting Florida schools from perceived “critical race theory” curriculum – could censor lessons on racism and promote a dishonest reading of history.

The “Individual Freedom” bill also applies to workplace diversity training sessions, which could be considered an unlawful employment practice subject to a lawsuit.

The legislation could bar companies from suggesting that “an individual’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin”.

During debate, bill sponsor and Republican state Rep Bryan Avila specifically singled out the Walt Disney Company’s Reimagine Tomorrow as a programme of concern, claiming that the company educates its employees about “systemic racism” and "critical race theory".

Disney says Reimagine Tomorrow is about "amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories" and builds on Disney’s longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Following revelations that Disney entities donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican legislators who supported the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prompting Disney officials to publicly oppose the bill, Governor DeSantis and other Republican officials have attacked the company, a political heavyweight in the state and the state’s largest private employer.

ESPN employees recently joined Disney staff in walkouts over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The company’s LGBT+ staff and allies also organised walkouts to protest the bill.

Governor DeSantis released a statement on his proposed "Stop Woke" bill in December 2021.

“In Florida, we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” he said. "We must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez added that she is proud to stand alongside the governor on this bill and with the "woke-free state of Florida".

Florida's Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said that the state's "classrooms, students and even teachers are under constant threat by critical race theory advocates," and added that "schools should be empowering students with great, historically accurate knowledge and giving those students and their families the freedom to draw their own conclusions.”

The governor said the legislation will prevent schools from “teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards.”

Opponents of the bill claim there is little evidence that critical race theory is being taught in public K-12 classrooms and that the legislation merely provides Republican officials another opportunity for discretionary policing that will discriminate against people of colour when exercising their first amendment rights.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, federal agencies were ordered to identify “un-American propaganda” or any "critical race theory" training in its contracts and spending. President Joe Biden reversed the order, but Republican state legislators across the US have proposed their own bans on critical race theory.

Disney workers stage daily walkouts to protest ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and demand protections for LGBT+ staff

‘How dare they’: Florida Republican claims Disney ‘bullying’ GOP after CEO suspends donations over ‘Don’t Say Gay’

DeSantis attacks Disney over ties to China after CEO speaks out against ‘Don’t Say Gay’

ICYMI

Coldest place in the world sees record-breaking heat wave

ANTARCTICA
Tyler Hamilton
Sat, March 19, 2022,

The Weather Network

Coldest place in the world sees record-breaking heat wave

It's tough to imagine an unprecedented heat wave at -10°C to -20°C, but that's the recent reality across Antarctica.

It's not even close. The coldest place on earth is Antarctica, although temperatures soared to more than 30 degrees above normal on March 17.

To grasp what's normal for this part of the world, think of the coldest temperature ever recorded in Edmonton, Alberta. That's roughly -50°C.

deg

We'll start at the Concordia research station, 3234 metres above sea level, where the mercury surged to -12.2°C. An average high in mid-March is more like -50°C. Consequently, this station saw a 36-degree temperature anomaly. Just for a second, imagine Toronto recorded a high of 40°C this past weekend. That's the kind of extreme anomaly we're looking at here.

The most famous Antarctic station of them all, Vostok, climbed to a balmy -17.7°C, eclipsing a monthly record by almost 15°C. This is also a sharp contrast to last winter, where the April-October period was the coldest on record -- increasingly rare in a warming world.

degrees

The Antarctica heat dome is even more extreme than British Columbia's unprecedented event in June 2021. B.C's heat dome saw temperatures reach 25 degrees above normal, where some stations broke all-time temperature records by nearly six degrees.

The ability for these records to be obliterated during the second half of March is unfathomable. The continent is quickly plunging into the cold season. This time of year, nearly 30 minutes of daylight are vanishing per day.

A strong low drove warmth well inland across the ice sheet, while the associated atmospheric river allowed more moisture to reach the continent, permitting temperatures to surge. The normally dry, arctic climate had more moisture to work with over the ice sheet, allowing heat to radiate towards the surface.

Iran debt should have been settled years ago - Zaghari-Ratcliffe

British-Iranian woman jailed by Iran criticises UK government for length of time it took to secure her release from Tehran jail.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said she should have been released from detention in Iran six years ago but the British government failed her. (AFP Archive)

Aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has accused Britain and Iran of treating her like a political pawn, saying it should not have taken six years for London to secure her release from detention in Tehran.

Appearing at a news conference in parliament in London, the 44-year-old said she would always be haunted by her time in prison but would slowly work to rebuild her life with her daughter, 7, and husband away from the spotlight.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds both British and Iranian citizenship, returned to Britain last week from Iran, where she was held for six years after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

She returned alongside another dual national, Anoosheh Ashoori, after London resolved what it called a parallel issue - repaying to Tehran a $526 million debt dating back to 1979 for the purchase of military tanks that were never delivered.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she had been told shortly after her arrest that the Iranians wanted "something off the Brits", and she could not understand why it had taken six years, and five different foreign secretaries, for it to be resolved.

"I mean, how many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?" she asked. "What's happened now should have happened six years ago."

READ MORE: Making sense of Iran’s ambitions in post-Soviet states



A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all foreign ministers had worked hard to secure her release.

"The government, including the prime minister, was committed to securing Nazanin's release as soon as possible. It was always entirely in Iran's gift to release detained dual nationals," he told reporters.

"All the foreign secretaries who have taken on this role have worked hard with officials to secure the release. It has been extremely complicated, it has been very difficult work."

Famous for a week

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by Revolutionary Guards at Tehran airport on April 3, 2016, while trying to return to Britain with her then 22-month-old daughter Gabriella from an Iranian New Year's trip to see her parents.

Her family and her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, denied the charge against her. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.

"I have been a pawn in the hands of the two governments over the past six years," she said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe thanked her family, friends and journalists for keeping her case in the spotlight, and said she was determined not to hold a grudge for the rest of her life.

She added that she only believed she was going home when she finally stepped on to the plane.

"Gabriella told me on the phone one day when I was in Iran, 'Mummy you do realise that you are very famous, and then it's me, and then it's daddy'," she said, adding that she told her daughter it would be better to have a "normal" life.

"And she said, 'Oh you're not going to be famous forever. Maximum a week'."

US watchdog plans to make companies reveal greenhouse-gas emissions

Climate action rules announced by SEC chair Gary Gensler expected to face opposition from Republicans and industry groups

Gary Gensler said the proposed rules would ‘would provide investors with consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information’. 

Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Dominic Rushe
Mon 21 Mar 2022 

The US’s top financial watchdog proposed on Monday that publicly traded companies report information on their greenhouse-gas emissions and even those of their suppliers and consumers in one of the Biden administration’s most sweeping environmental actions to date.

The new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules faces staunch opposition from some politicians and members of the business community and will be open to public comment for at least two months before final rules are released.



Oil companies blame clean energy transition for market volatility

“I am pleased to support today’s proposal because, if adopted, it would provide investors with consistent, comparable and decision-useful information for making their investment decisions, and it would provide consistent and clear reporting obligations for issuers,” said the SEC chair, Gary Gensler.

The proposal, which has been in the works for over a year, would force companies to make public the extent of their carbon footprint. While some companies including Apple and Microsoft now publish detailed analyses of their emissions, others have been reluctant to improve disclosure.

Under the proposal publicly traded companies would have to report greenhouse-gas emissions and obtain independent certification of their estimates. Some companies would also be required to report emissions from both their supply chains and consumers, known as Scope 3 emissions.

Republicans and some industry groups have already begun lobbying against the new requirements, which they argue would increase costs and go beyond the SEC’s mandate.

In a speech last year Gensler said the rules would introduce consistency to company reporting at a time when investors were increasingly concerned about the impact of climate on businesses.

“Today, investors increasingly want to understand the climate risks of the companies whose stock they own or might buy. Large and small investors, representing literally tens of trillions of dollars, are looking for this information to determine whether to invest, sell, or make a voting decision one way or another.

Investors are looking for consistent, comparable, and decision-useful disclosures so they can put their money in companies that fit their needs,” he said.

Factbox-Countries and companies shun Russian crude over Ukraine invasion

Fri, March 18, 2022

Industrial facilities of the PCK Raffinerie oil refinery in Schwedt/Oder

(Reuters) - Russian gas flows to Europe remain stable, but Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and voluntary actions by buyers are starting to impact its crude oil and oil product sales.

While only a few countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, have imposed outright bans, some buyers in Europe are shunning Russian oil to avoid reputational damage or possible legal troubles.

Some 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil and products may not find their way to market beginning in April, the International Energy Agency estimates.

Russian officials, however, expressed hope that supplies would remain stable, while oil exports and transit from the country's western ports and Druzhba pipeline were expected to rise in the second quarter.

Following are actions announced by countries and major European energy companies:

WHO IS STILL BUYING RUSSIAN OIL?

BULGARIA

Neftochim Burgas refinery, owned by Russia's Lukoil , could use 100% non-Russian crude if need be, up from 40% currently, a government official said.

CHINA

China is the second-largest Russian oil importer after the European Union, and the IEA says seaborne shipments could even increase. Petro-Logistics, which monitors oil production, is seeing more Russian crude heading to China.

EUROPEAN UNION

The 27-member bloc, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas and 27% of its crude imports, is split over curbing Russian intake but a plan to ditch Russian fossil fuels over the longer-term is expected by the end of May.

FRANCE

Russian crude oil accounted for 9.5% of total imports in 2021, but the French Association of Petroleum Industry (Ufip) said alternative supplies can be found, adding it is already moving away from Russian diesel.

GERMANY

Russian crude accounts for about 14% of intake at Germany's largest refinery, Miro..

Germany's PCK Schwedt refinery, 54% owned by Rosneft, is fed via the Druzhba pipeline, as well as the landlocked Leuna refinery, majority-owned by TotalEnergies.

HELLENIC PETROLEUM

Greece's biggest oil refiner said Russian crude accounted for about 15% of its feed in the second half of 2021 but can be replaced. It has already secured additional supplies from Saudi Arabia.

HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM,

India's state refiner bought 2 million barrels of Russian Urals for May loading, according to trading sources.

INDIAN OIL

India's top refiner bought 3 million barrels of Urals for May delivery, trade sources said.

ISAB

Italy's largest refinery, owned by Swiss-based Litasco SA, which is controlled by Lukoil, was working as normal as of March 4. It processes various crudes.

MOL

The Hungarian oil group says it continues to be supplied by the Druzhba pipeline. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly opposed sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

NETHERLANDS

Neither the Dutch government nor Rotterdam Port have banned Russian oil. Around 30% of the oil that goes through Rotterdam is Russian. Around 20 million tonnes of Russian oil products go through the port annually.

PKN Orlen

Poland's largest refiner has said it is buying Russian crude for its refineries in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, but was prepared for "any scenario", including a complete suspension of Russian supply.

TURKEY

Turkey has no plans to stop buying Russian crude and related products. It opposes sanctions on Moscow. Tupras is the largest refiner in Turkey.

WHO HAS STOPPED BUYING RUSSIAN OIL?

AMPOL

The Australian refiner says it has not bought Russian crude oil or products since the conflict started.

BP

The British oil major, which is abandoning its stake in Rosneft, will not enter into new deals with Russian entities for loading at Russian ports, unless "essential for ensuring security of supplies".

BRITAIN

Britain said it would phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of 2022.

CANADA

Canada has said it will ban Russian crude imports, and is also looking into banning refined products. It has not imported Russian crude oil since 2019, but in 2021 bought naphtha, diesel and gasoline.

CEPSA

The Spanish firm owned by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala and private equity firm Carlyle, has stopped buying Russian crude, natural gas and oil products and doesn't expect its position to change in the foreseeable future.

ENI

The energy group, 30.3% owned by the Italian government, is suspending purchases of Russian oil. No Russian crude will be used at Germany's Bayernoil refinery, which both Eni and Rosneft have stakes in.

EQUINOR

Norway's majority state-owned energy firm has stopped trading Russian oil as it winds down its operations in the country.

GALP

The Portuguese oil and gas company has suspended all new purchases of petroleum products from Russia or Russian companies.

MAERSK

The Danish shipping group has stopped buying Russian oil for its vessels.

NESTE

The Finnish refiner has Russian oil contracts lasting until the end of the year, but is not making any new supply agreements.

OMV

The Austrian oil and gas firm has said it is not refining any Russian crude grades in its European refineries, and has no intention to do so in the "near future".

PREEM

Sweden's largest refiner, owned by Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, has "paused" new orders of Russian crude, which accounted for around 7% of its purchases, replacing it with North Sea barrels.

REPSOL

The Spanish firm has stopped buying Russian crude oil in the spot market.

RWE

The German utility said it would stop new supply deals for Russian gas or oil.

SHELL

The world's largest petroleum trader will stop buying Russian crude and phase out its involvement in all Russian hydrocarbons.

TOTALENERGIES

The French company has stopped buying oil from Russia, although one of its landlocked refineries in Germany continues to receive Russian crude by pipeline.

VARO ENERGY

The Swiss refiner, which owns the Cressier refinery in Switzerland and has a 51.4% share in Germany's Bayernoil refinery, said it had not entered into new Russian crude deals since the invasion, and wasn't planning to, while its previous contracts had expired.

VIVA ENERGY

The refiner, which operates in Australia under the Shell brand, has stopped buying Russian crude.

UNITED STATES

The United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, imposed a wide ban on Russian oil and gas imports on March 8.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Compiled by Nerijus Adomaitis and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

FOCUS: Resource-poor Japan cautious about sanctions targeting Russian energy

共同通信社 15/03/2022

While some Western countries have been backing away from energy resources from Russia as part of sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, resource-poor Japan is taking a more cautious approach due to its heavy dependence on energy imports

.

© 共同通信社

The United States announced earlier this month it will ban Russian oil and other energy imports in what is largely a symbolic move to punish Moscow over its aggression as Washington is not a major importer of Russian oil.

Britain also said that it will phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of the year.

But experts said it is not easy for Japan and its companies to follow suit, including giving up their stakes in the Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2 large-scale oil and gas projects in the Russian Far East due to their importance to Japan's energy security.

Japan's energy self-sufficiency rate was as low as 11.2 percent as of fiscal 2020 through March 2021, according to Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

Russia accounted for 3.6 percent of Japanese crude oil imports, and 8.8 percent of its liquefied natural gas imports in 2021, data from the Japan External Trade Organization show.

The response of the Japanese government and companies to the Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2 projects has been in focus since oil majors Shell PLC of Britain and American Exxon Mobil Corp. announced ends to their respective involvements in them following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., invested in by the government as well as trading houses Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp. among others, owns a 30 percent stake in Sakhalin 1.

Trading houses Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. hold a 12.5 percent and 10 percent stake, respectively, in the Sakhalin 2 project, in which Russian energy giant Gazprom PJSC has about a 50 percent stake. The joint venture produces most of Japan's gas imports from Moscow.

Hiroshi Hashimoto, head of the gas group at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, said he believes it is "unrealistic" for Japan to pull out of the Sakhalin projects in view of the potential blow to the Japanese economy and people's lives.

"Japan is in a different position from oil majors from other countries rich in their own resources," Hashimoto said, stressing the importance of the Sakhalin projects for stable energy supplies to Japan.

Japan has been promoting energy imports from Russia due to its geographical vicinity and the necessity to reduce its reliance on the Middle East. Sakhalin island, which hosts the two projects, is located north of Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido.

The Sakhalin 1 project, from which Exxon Mobil announced its withdrawal, was launched in 1995 and has been supplying Japan with crude oil since 2006.

Meanwhile, the Sakhalin 2 venture, the project exited by Shell, has an annual output capacity of about 10 million tons of LNG, with Japan, China and South Korea among the major importers. It began LNG exports in 2009.

Taisuke Abiru, senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, said the Sakhalin 2 project is not "simply a corporate venture" for Japan.

"There have been concerns over the project in light of the risk to the companies' reputations. But Mitsui and Mitsubishi seem to recognize its importance in ensuring Japan's energy security," he said.

Both companies have said they will continue discussions about the project with the Japanese government and other relevant stakeholders.

Hashimoto said Japan would have to find alternative energy sources if it pulls out of the projects, which could lead to higher energy prices. The country might need to turn more to renewable energy or nuclear power generation, or ask people to save energy to make up for the loss.

Senior Japanese government officials and business leaders have also underlined the country's difficult position, expressing reluctance to reach a decision immediately.

Koichi Hagiuda, Japan's industry minister, said last week Japan should take a "wait-and-see" approach over joining Western nations in pulling the plug on the energy projects.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference earlier this month that ensuring a stable energy supply is a "national interest that must be protected with maximum" efforts.

He said a decision on the Sakhalin 1 venture, which involves the Japanese government given its stake in Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., must be made following a sufficient assessment of the situation from the standpoint of stabilizing Japan's energy supply and security.

Hashimoto of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, said Tokyo must also consider when mulling pulling out of the projects whether companies from other countries would simply take Japan's place in the ventures, rendering the sanctions step ineffective.

As the Ukraine crisis continues, the world faces the issue of how to deal with Russia and how much they should depend on the country, Abiru of the Sasakawa foundation said.

"Russia is one of the largest natural gas and crude oil producers, so it is difficult to completely remove Moscow from the global economy in the short run," he said.

But for Japan, Abiru said, continuing participation in the two Sakhalin projects may bring benefits in the long run.

"The relationship between Japan and Russia has worsened due to the Ukraine crisis. But if the two countries continue energy cooperation, it may be a catalyst for improving ties in the future," he said.

© 共同通信社

Ukraine war: Japanese firms’ Russia ties in firing line as pressure mounts over invasion

Japanese firms have largely taken a wait-and-see approach so far. Prominent companies are likely to feel more heat as Western investors pare back ties to Russia

Corporate executives say privately they are worried about reputational damage, as government officials hint Japan cannot just walk away from Russian energy

Reuters in Tokyo

People protest in Tokyo on Sunday against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: EPA

Japanese firms are under deepening pressure over their ties to Russia and are scrambling to assess their operations, company and government insiders said, after Western rivals halted businesses and condemned Moscow for invading Ukraine.

While environmental, social and governance (ESG) investors have previously targeted companies in Japan for fossil fuels, scrutiny over Russia could become intense. Executives say privately they are worried about reputational damage, a sign corporate Japan is – however reluctantly – becoming more responsive to pressure on social issues.

Japan’s trading houses, commodities giants long seen as quasi-governmental arms integral to Japan’s energy supply, have big ties to Russia. Last year Russia was Japan’s second-biggest supplier of thermal coal and its fifth-largest of both crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

A Japanese-made liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier is seen anchored near an LNG plant on the Russian island of Sakhalin. Photo: Reuters

“The energy issue has implications for national and public interest, so it has to be discussed properly with the government,” said one trading house insider, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity.

“But we also have to think about our corporate value and about how we explain this to our shareholders. It’s a difficult position.”

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Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp have stakes in the giant Sakhalin-2 LNG project Shell is now exiting. Itochu Corp and Marubeni Corp have invested in the Sakhalin-1 oil project that ExxonMobil is pulling out of.

Mitsui and Mitsubishi said they would consider the situation, together with the Japanese government and partners. Itochu and Marubeni declined to comment on their plans related to Sakhalin-1.

Japanese firms have largely said they are watching the situation. Those that have halted activity have tended to cite supply-chain disruption rather than human rights.

A senior executive at a carmaker said management at his company was holding daily meetings to gauge the impact of financial sanctions and the implication for parts supply.

“We’re also discussing reputational risk and how to deal with the news from the point of view of human rights and ESG – of course we’re aware of that,” said the executive.

“But we can’t just immediately decide we’re going to pull out because we can’t tell how long the Ukraine crisis will continue.”

Japanese firms typically do not face the same level of scrutiny from shareholders, customers, regulators and even their own employees that Western companies now confront, said Jana Jevcakova, the international head of ESG at shareholder services firm Morrow Sodali.

“Most Japanese companies still don’t have a majority of international institutional investors. Those that do will very shortly, or already are, feel the pressure.”

Reliant on Russia

A manufacturing executive said his company felt a responsibility to local staff in Russia but was also concerned about the risk of saying nothing.

“Japanese companies have been slow to react. Too slow. And I can’t agree with that,” he said. “If we keep quiet and just continue manufacturing and selling, we will likely face a risk to our reputation.”

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has unveiled steps to help cushion the blow from higher oil prices, but it is unclear what the government will do about broader dependence on Russia. Japan’s imports from Russia totalled around US$11 billion in 2020.

Government officials say privately Japan cannot just walk away from Russian energy, even as they acknowledge the peril.

People march in the central Japanese city of Nagoya on Sunday to protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Kyodo

“If Japan remains invested in Russia, that itself runs the risk of drawing criticism” should the conflict be prolonged, said an official close to Kishida.

In a moment of rare outspokenness for the leader of a state-owned lender, the head of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation said last week that “it would not be right” for companies to stick to business as usual in Russia. Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co have stopped exports to Russia, citing logistics issues, with Toyota halting local production.

Nissan, Mazda Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp are all likely to stop local production when parts inventories run out, they say.

Japan’s most prominent companies are likely to feel more heat as Western investors themselves pare back ties to Russia.

Russian warships in waters off Japan in ‘warning’ over Ukraine


“We believe good corporate citizenship includes support of governmental sanctions, as well as closing down activities that might fall outside the current sanctions,” said Anders Schelde, chief investment officer at Danish pension fund AkademikerPension, which has US$21.3 billion of assets under management and US$342 million exposure to Japanese equities.

“From a financial point of view this might mean companies suffer short-term losses, but given the long-term stigmatisation of Russia that is likely, the long-term cost will not change much.”