Good morning; here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Senator Roasts EV Advocate on China Dependency

• EU’s Top Diplomat Reveals He Knows Zilch about Oil Markets

• Tweet of the Day

Senator Roasts EV Advocate on China Dependency

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis can join John Kennedy in the Hall of Fame for straight-talking to legislators. Why? She roasted EV advocate Kathy Harris at a hearing.

The roast? Basically, Sen. Lummis asked Harris if it’s a good idea to make the U.S. dependent on China for the metals all EVs require.

There’s an elephant in the room, and it’s made of metal

The discussion of whether EVs are better than internal combustion engine cars for the environment became a thing only recently.

For years, EVs have been pushed as cleaner because they don’t have tailpipes.

The fact they need massive amounts of metals were carefully omitted, of course.

Now, thanks to people like Sen. Lummis, this fact is drawing attention.

The fact that China is the runaway leader in EV metals processing and rare earth production has also drawn attention.

Watch how, when Sen. Lummis asks Harris if she knows who the third-largest producer of lithium is, she says, “I do not have that number in front of me today.”

Lummis gets the same answer when she asks about the largest producer of cobalt in the world (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the largest exporter of manganese (China).

In all, Harris repeats that she does not have “that number” in front of her today about half a dozen times.

As if that makes it all okay.

Emissions or foreign dependency

This is the ultimate dilemma.

China controls the EV supply chain.

Completely.

Changing that will require decades of work since Chinese companies have literally cornered several key markets in that chain.

The choice for the U.S. comes down to two options:

1. Continuing to use local energy, that is oil and gas, OR

2. Deepening an already existing dependence on a country its government calls an adversary

Tough choice, no doubt about that.

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EU’s Top Diplomat Reveals He Knows Zilch about Oil Markets

The EU’s high representative for foreign policy Josep Borrell has called on the bloc to stop importing so much fuel from India…

Because they’re made from Russian crude, and that’s against sanctions.

Out of touch with reality much?

Actually, importing fuels from third countries that used Russian oil to make those fuels is not against EU sanctions.

It would have been suicide if it were.

Which is why it’s not illegal.

That was the whole point of the G7 price cap scheme: to keep the oil and diesel flowing but cut Moscow’s revenues.

Yet Borrell insists that the EU must crack down on such imports from third countries.

Which raises the following reasonable question: what is the EU going to replace those imports with?

Easy-peasy: U.S. fuels.

You can’t sell what you don’t have

U.S. exports of fuels to the EU hit a record high earlier this year.

They’ve stayed high, thanks to lower demand at home, but there’s a limit to what the U.S. can do for the EU.

It’s got its own gas tanks to feed—some 278 million of them. (Sorry, EVs)

And the U.S. just barely dodged a diesel shortage only because economic activity slumped.

What happens when it starts to recover?

Sorry, EU. You should learn to take care of yourselves.

Around the Global Patch

🇻🇪 Venezuela's ambitious oil and gas production surge in 2023.
🇨🇳 China's April refinery throughput surges by 19%.
🇦🇺 Australian gas giant's plan: importing carbon dioxide from Asia.

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