[oily tale] beyond the pale

Another place, another oily tale

You know, I can really relate to this. It looked, on the surface, as if it was Russia flexing its muscles again, squaring up to an arrogant Germany:

Russia has cut oil supplies to Germany in the past month, its pipeline monopoly said on Friday, blaming the reduction on Russia’s number two oil producer LUKOIL.

But the real story then appeared:

But traders said on Friday the most recent development was linked to a trading dispute involving only LUKOIL. ”It is the same old story. LUKOIL likes having direct supply deals with refiners and doesn’t like selling all its crude to Kishilov,” said a trader with a Russian company.

Sergei Kishilov, a prominent Russian oil industry figure, has run the operations of Sunimex for over 10 years. Sunimex is a monopoly importer of Russian crude to Germany, including to the Schwedt refinery.

Leaving crude oil and looking at the psychology of individuals, if I were head of a Russian Oil Company [please contact me, boys] and there was real "stick" between myself and some jumped up fellow countryman who'd managed to gain the monopoly on oil supply, under my nose, to one of the major economies in the world and if I had to deal solely through this jackanapes instead of directly with my customers, I'd cut off his supplies too.

It's all very well saying it's childish and people in Germany will suffer and all that but this is outrageous. Not only would I not supply this person, I'd try to get all other suppliers in my country to refuse too. This Kishilov is beyond the pale.