U.S. expands natural gas supplies to Europe, U.S. natural gas ETF soars 56% this year

Affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Western camp boycotted Russian energy, but it also caused European countries that are highly dependent on Russian natural gas to face an energy crisis. ETFs that track U.S. natural gas prices have also benefited from U.S. plans to expand gas supplies to Europe to fill the gap in Russian gas, with shares up as much as 56 percent this year.

The United States Natural Gas ETF, which tracks front-month natural gas futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rose 56.04% this year through March 25. MarketWatch quotes show that on March 25, NYMEX April natural gas futures surged to $5.571 per million British thermal units, up nearly 15% in the past week.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Brussels, Belgium, where he was invited to attend a meeting of the European Council (European Council) to meet with leaders of the 27 EU nations.

According to the White House’s latest plan, the goal is to supply 50 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe annually by at least 2030, but it only accounts for about one-third of the EU’s natural gas imports from Russia and cannot completely replace Russian natural gas. .

The report pointed out that Western countries are trying to replace Russia’s natural gas supply source to consolidate Europe’s energy security. However, because natural gas is not easy to transport, it needs to be cooled and compressed into a liquid state before long-distance shipping, and special equipment must be used to re-gasify it before use. Therefore, the supply gap of natural gas is more difficult to fill than that of oil and coal.

Germany has decided to close the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline in order to sanction Russia for sending troops to attack Ukraine. The $11 billion pipeline, due to be completed by the end of August 2021, will send Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, much to the ire of the long-time opposition United States.

Over the years, the United States has been warning that Russia’s expansion of direct gas supply to Europe will endanger Europe’s energy security. Russia may use energy supply as a lever to contain Europe. Experts agree that Europe must diversify its energy import sources and avoid over-reliance on Russia.

Kingdom of Lakes – Sweden

There are now 1.08 million Swedes living in the United States, Canada, Finland and Denmark.

In recent years, the number of immigrants has exceeded the number of emigrants. Immigrants account for about 15% of the Swedish population.

The majority of immigrants come from Scandinavian countries, with the largest number of immigrants coming from Finland.

The proportion of refugees from Southern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Central America has increased in recent years, making it difficult for them to integrate with the local population.

The increase in immigration has also led to an increase in crime in Sweden, and the Swedish government has tightened restrictions on immigration since the 1970s.

Swedish is the official language of Sweden. Sweden has a long distance between the north and the south, so each region has its own dialect.

English and Swedish are the common business languages.

Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family.

Swedish is related to Danish and Norwegian, but is pronounced and written differently

English is a second language. English has been a compulsory course in high schools since 1849, and in the late 1940s it became compulsory for all Swedish students. Most Swedes also have a command of one or more other languages, and there are classes in foreign languages other than English, such as Spanish, German, French, Italian, etc.

Intel wins anti-competition case, EU court drops €1.06 billion fine

According to a statement, the General Court of the European Union (ECJ) on 26 June quashed a €1.06 billion fine imposed by the ECJ on U.S. chipmaker Intel, finding that the EU had failed to sufficiently prove the key anti-competitive conduct in the case.

Twelve years after the fourth-highest fine in the EU’s history, the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg ruled that the fine was invalid, but the Commission may appeal to the Supreme Court.

The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust enforcement body, faces a similar appeal in a major anti-competitive case against search engine giant Google, a legal battle that could last a decade or more.

The EU is seeking to pass draft laws against large technology companies such as the Digital Markets Act, and some lawyers say these new laws are expected to reduce the volume of cases requiring separate antitrust investigations.

The European Commission accused Intel of offering kickbacks to customers to give preference to its own computer chips over rival AMD’s products, leading to a hefty fine against the half-conductor giant in 2009.

However, the General Court noted that the EU’s “analysis is incomplete and fails to demonstrate, based on the requisite legal standard, that the rebates at issue are capable of having or likely to have an anti-competitive effect”.

In addition, the legality of offering discounts to manufacturers was also at the heart of the Google Android case, in which Google was fined a heavy €4.3 billion by the EU, the highest fine ever recorded in the EU.