Than to stand that the sanctions will not be able to stop north streams construction as its already near completion germany is already preparing to tell a true measures top officials slammed the bill. Congress has indeed decided to impose sanctions we are against extraterritorial sanctions not only those adopted yesterday but we also have the same problem with the sanctions against iran there is no other option left for us but to hold very decisive talks to show that we are not accepting these sanctions we believe that is unacceptable as it is an attempt to influence the sovereign decisions of europe we are holding negotiations with the United States meanwhile the german parliaments kmita chief on economy and energy told r. T. That berlin is ready to respond to any sanctions imposed by washington and the u. S. Is unhappy that we are not by ny gas they want to boost their own trade and thats why they are imposing sanctions on Companies Involved in building the pipeline firstly american liquefied natural gas is obtained through fracking which makes its unacceptable for germany and secondly it is much more expensive than rushing gas the natural gas we get from russia is high in demand and due to falling production in europe demand has only increased so we plan to import more of it this is why north stream 2 is so important because of north stream 2 it will be completed even if u. S. Sanctions are imposed on project participants that was announced by kremlin spokesperson to me trip is called he noted that the u. S. Actions violate International Law are unfair competition and many expensive and uncompetitive products will be forced on europe as gas consume is moscow does not like such actions nor does berlin nor paris these sanctions are a direct violation of International Law an example of unfair competition and an attempt to spread artificial u. S. Dominance to european markets via the imposition of more expensive and uncompetitive products construction of north stream to began last year as of november 29th seen more than 80 percent of the pipeline was built its launch a shuttle for 2020 the 2 lines of north stream and north stream 2 from russia to germany are currently bin laden and the baltic sea total capacity is expected to be 55. 00. 1000000000 cubic meters of gas to get some of europes Biggest Energy funds are involved in construction of north stream to the pipeline will pass through territorial waters and Economic Zones of the Russian FederationFinland Sweden denmark and germany according to the russian side the north stream 2 construction project complies with International Law and there is no legal basis for a suspension therefore it and use opponents of the project are using illegal tools that threaten the Global Economy moscow has repeatedly stated that north stream too is an absolutely commercial and competitive project germany has also repeatedly said that north stream too is an economic project and does not threaten the Energy Security of europe ukraine opposes nostrum to fearing it will lose revenue from russian gas transit but as of late he made peace and noted earlier the construction of the gas pipeline does not imply a hold of transit on the russian gas through ukraine the budget bill is expected to be signed into law by donald trump later this week if hes not impeached of course you. See. And on that note boom bust bridgeboro and i were joined by professor Richard Wolfe host of economic update to talk about these sanctions due to the north stream 2 project and recent opec cuts professor ward started the conversation by giving his take on the think sions richard lets be clear about whats happening here saying sions again as i said theyre typically used at least thats what were told right to deter bad behavior by governments thats clearly not what this is russia is not forcing germany to purchase natural gas and again germany is actively lobbying against this action by the u. S. And on top of all of that as brit pointed out this is part of a National Defense bill what so you. Well i think this is remarkable because its a kind of tectonic shift a major shift the Republican Party and lets remember that what mr trump is the leader of now has a tradition. Only been the against the government interfering in the economy the government is not supposed to pick winners and losers the government is not supposed to levy heavy taxes which is what our of so are there a kind of tax and yet here we see a government of republicans actively using government interference in this case particularly targeting a country that were not at war with that is an ally of ours germany particularly targeting a particular company as if it had the right to do that let me make sure that your audience our audience understands in every major european newspaper this is seen as an aggressive act of Economic Warfare by the United States against germany and russia in this case against argentina and brazil a couple of weeks ago with those tariffs against the chinese as we all know this is the United States no longer playing the role of the leader of a globalized interactive world where business is encouraged this is the United States hunkering down punishing everybody it feels like for reasons that are very hard to understand and looking for all the world as the role of state that is on doing the Global Economy in the whole poulos effort to once again gain some kind of control they imagine they once had this should concern americans because of the rabid kind of changing mentality of a state that has to protect itself all the time with these aggressive actions very dangerous yeah and just following up on that so you make a good point about republicans right so President Trump talks about not being involved in all these. Around the world and yet he is sparking conflicts on the economic front i mean this is really economic totalitarianism right where he essentially is saying in this case its about you know natural gas and energy but in other cases for the case of japan hes trying to force them to buy their new f. 2 from military contractors that are American Military contractors as you pointed out hes punishing argentina and brazil because theyre competing on the soybean front it seems like every place there is economic competition this president is attempting to use his power as president and again the National Defense bills to harm other countries economically and it seems like that is a very dangerous position to put the country in. Very dangerous its making us real enemies that video that went viral last week of the leaders of the european nato countries laughing at mr trump thats also a little sign but its a sign of leaders in the rest of the world beginning to take seriously that the United States from being the leader that they followed being the leader of the free world they like to call it thats over and its not just mr trump its not just even the Republican Party the Democratic Party is saying very little against all of this theyre busy with russian interference in elections theyre busy with impeachment but when this kind of aggressive transformation when the world looks to be threatened by the United States economically the democrats who ought to be an opposition are bizarrely quiet with a few exceptions and i think that makes the rest of the world worry that this kind of a shift runs deeper than mr trump and the republicans and that makes it even more dangerous for them and therefore for us and youre absolutely right because it does feel like the democrats are very quiet especially when we come into sanctions of another country and theyre supposed to be no be completely against i mean as opposed to be a complete i guess but they tend to be completely against everything that trump says and thats what they do i want to make a little bit of a transition here to the oil markets now saudi aramco shares surged the maximum permitted 10 percent above their i. P. O. Price this week the saudi government is hailing this as a bin to cation of its 2 trillion dollars valuation of the state oil company do you believe that this company is overvalued or is it really the worlds most valuable company. Well i think what youre seeing here is a speculation by the people buying into this company for the following reason saudi arabia is such. Major player in the World Oil Market that youre now going to have people owning shares in a Company Whose decisions will affect the price of oil and therefore the price of these shares all the shareholders are going to want saudi arabia to manipulate the quantity of oil in the world in order to boost its price therefore the companys shares and therefore validate their investment its as if a company could print its own money and theyre gambling that the saudi knows they have to do that otherwise people will sell that those shares they want to see the government taking the power it has to control the price and theyre gambling that thats going to happen the rest of the world will have to see whether they tolerate that because the rest of the world if they act together can own do the power of saudi arabia over or oil will they do it the answer is what will happen to the people hurt by Rising Oil Prices how powerful are they versus the saudis who are going to have every incentive now to jack up the price of oil and for the rest of us we will watch this game without being able to shape it except well have to pay the price of oil that is the result and were short on time i think 30 seconds its got to be a quick answer here but you know opec is trying to do that richard they are trying to right now work a deal to slash production and lower those numbers but u. S. Inventories up in fact we just got the new reports showing us imagery is actually much higher than had been thought is the u. S. That when a wrench into that opec or opec plus plan very quickly. I think the United States is like every other country theres a interests who want the price down interests who want the price of oil and thats the fight that they are having we all live with the consequences and have no real input on to this contest between contesting capitalist interests thats the rock truth of it professor Richard Wolfe thank you so much for your time the time now for a quick break but hang in there because we return Oil Bankruptcies are up and prices are moving what does the forecast look like for 2020 break it down plus we take a look at the state of the Clean Energy Sector and where well go in the next year with tyson slocum from public citizen. Time after time called her ration to repeat the same mantra sustainability its very important to excel or a transition to sustainable transport sustainability stay number man on a more equitable and sustainable well. They claim that production is completely hamas does need that doesnt have. To be good to the models and it does not the present Companies Want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is Something Else this must be going to mean and i mean look. This is the mood in unison we didnt even and im stunned seemed to be based on disconnect with superman and. You know world of big partisan movies lot and conspiracy its time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that Mainstream Media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bad and shouting past each other its time for Critical Thinking its time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. Medical use downs to leaks last lonely guard to god healed. Me. When you. Present that it could cause a better look and that is the whole thing was a topical. Just its still its. Just. Bankruptcy filings by the u. S. Energy producers through mid august of 29000. 00 have nearly matched the total for the whole of 2018 as Oil Prices Remain under pressure this slowing oil industry sits heavily on the u. S. Economy as a boom and shale added about 10 percent of growth to the u. S. Economy in the last 5 years now the shells that there has just started generating cash flow but many small to midsize shale firms are already pulling back on production targets amid weak Price Productions and now banks have also begun trimming back credit lines for american shell producers for their undercutting the industry that has been struggling to regain Investor Confidence for the 1st time since 2016 producer surveys expect to see declines at least 15 producers have already filed for bankruptcy this year and market values across the industry have plunged an average of 21 percent many producers are now struggling under huge debt loads accumulated earlier other issues have played the industry as well many have turned to lower quality sites and others have began drilling wells too close together resulting in a loss of overall Performance Industry surveys show that a handful of Large Companies are on the edge of bankruptcy as there is about 15000000000. 00 of debt at risk and investors remain dubious that further opec cuts can boost prices we were. Only joined by david mcilvaine a c. E. O. Of mccabe Financial Group to discuss the rash of bankruptcies in the oil sectors we started the interview by asking who along the supply chain is feeling this the most. Ear Service Companies are dealing with the toughest times right now i think theyve got the most acute pain youve got over capacity and theres just not the jobs that they are used to doing so they still have to service debt and thats a tough thing to do if youve taken a lot of dad in your business lows down thats why theyre in the crux theyre in the midst of some tough times so a lot of these majors who try to insulate themselves from a downturn theyve expanded their wealth a refinery networks in order to control costs and sustain periods of low prices but its kind of a catch 22. 00 is it not that in expanding theyve also kind of over leveraged and now carry huge amounts of debt so how can their vertical integration help them and can they whether 2020. Were not very concerned with the majors and obviously you have in absolute terms large amounts of debt but if you look at their capitalization to debt ratios theyre actually right in line with other non oil Type Companies so i think again youve got to go down the food chain to see where the real weakness is and where the likelihood of greater consolidation would be and also where you might see further bankruptcies so the pressure is not on the majors and you can see this across the share prices if youre looking at a a c. Drill or a neighbors or a trans ocean these are places where the pressure has been more acute so back to the earlier question yes its the Service Companies its also your offshore guys it is also some of your drillers as well one of the e. M. P. Guys a lot of these oil plays havent really materialized the way that we expected in the projections a lot of them have claimed that the drilling sites have not resulted in what they expected to get to gain and a lot of them have been over leverage and over expanded in terms of just gaining market share and in the Permian Basin but those players have not really materialized at all because these shell plays have been underwhelming to say the least. 18 was sort of rampant speculation in the Permian Basin thats where you saw kind of a and overbidding of a lot of asset prices and already youre seeing you know groups like chevron this last week writing off 10 11000000000. 00 and i think well see more of that as 2020. Fold so yeah i think the overpaying in the permian is now hurting some of your Oil Companies but where you do see i think positive mergers and acquisitions youre seeing things in alaska youre seeing things in in the eagle ford youre seeing things much more broadly distributed in 2019 were on track for between 85100000000000. 00 and mergers and acquisitions so the real i guess i think where you overpaid significantly was where there was a lot of speculative energy in the permian last year in the year before so as you said that we can probably expect to see a way of americas among the smaller players right now in the Permian Basin and some of the other shale regions so who are some of the right acquisition targets and whos portfolio and what they fit into. Its a good question its a good question i think time will tell as we get into 2020 coming back to what youre saying in terms of financing i think one of the key things that is happening here at the end of the year are based loan redetermination zx and as you see these loan rates redetermined thats where youre seeing a lot of pressure is is folks who thought they had x. Amount of production its not going to be that much production is not as strong as as you mentioned kristie and so thats where all of a sudden were beginning to see a squeeze and where the opportunity lies on the acquisition side is really where the pressure is born as we come through the 4th quarter now the irony is not only do we have a tightening in bank