The text message bursts in every night, after 10pm. The recipient is the weakest link in the most powerful chain. Whether it is on the slopes of Esterzili or at the gates of Cagliari, in the heart of Nuoro or Oristano, or at the entrance to Sarroch, it doesn't matter. The army of gas station attendants, victims of an unassailable and inexorable oil illegal hiring, must submit without too many pleasantries to the orders of the sender, always the same, ever more powerful. To write those coded figures is the "corporal" of the oil, the one refined in unleaded petrol or diesel. He distributes the cards via whatsapp like a hidden and silent director, the one who dictates increases and decreases every night, who decides the strategies to blow up the bank and rake in unexpected gains. The guns are obviously all aimed at the "pump" that dispenses the finished product at service stations. The game is simple, the oil companies are behind the scenes, the gas station attendant becomes the front office, the screen of a billion-dollar business that exploits the weak and grinds, in the upper echelons, earnings of a thousand and one nights.

Tour match

For at least two years, governments have been making a fuss about allocating resources to "mitigate" the effects of expensive fuels, but no one really affects the causes, on that mega-speculation that is marking the economy of an entire country more than anywhere else. And after all petrol and diesel are the most horizontal mechanism, the one that spares no one, from farmers to fishermen, from artisans to transport companies, all affected at the heart of their productions. In the latest state budget, two thirds of the appropriations, over 20 billion, were destined to "pay" bills and price increases. In reality those appropriations, which could have been used to restart the economy, ended up in the coffers of those who conceived, conceived and implemented energy-oil speculation. A sort of round game: money for citizens and businesses to pay for the extra profits of the large state-owned multinationals, those that manage the large oil, refining, distribution and energy production pie. The illusion is that of giving money to families, the substance is quite different: the handrail is all too evident. A perverse mechanism, which is leaving an indelible mark on the economy, burdened by inflation directly linked to large-scale energy speculation. The subject is delicate. At stake are the powers that be, the powerful in energy, state lobbies and others, who have always been involved in the decision-making buildings. It is certainly easier to carry out spot checks on the "gas stations" rather than messing up that impregnable energy-oil chain that starts from the ends of the Universe up to the Italian and Sardinian refineries. Distant mechanisms, always covered by foreign-to-foreign operations, transactions carried out in tax havens, trying to evade tax controls and more, with gentlemen who call themselves "traders", in fact impalpable companies that buy and triangulate crude oil and gas from the highest bidder bypassing sanctions and bans. It is there that the bloodiest speculation lurks, the one that is not consumed in the cents linked to excise duties or various taxes. The speculative differential is all enclosed between the actual cost of oil and the cost of refining, the quantities stored and the management of stocks. Now that the Russian market is officially out of play for Europe, new speculative avenues have opened up precisely because that oil, that of Moscow, no longer arrives directly, but with triangulations, through "traders", perhaps they are positioned in Turkey, where it is permissible to buy Putin's oil and resell it as one's own at the gates of the Gulf of Angels.

Low cost Russian oil

Ten months ago, in the midst of a war of bombs and sanctions, it was March 20, 2022, in the roadstead between Villasimius and Capitana, a gigantic tanker arrived, bearing the flag of Malta. In reality, however, despite the communications on the Stock Exchange announcing the halt to Russian trading, that oil came directly from Ust-Luga, the first oil gate of the Russian Tsar to Sardinia. The international radars reported it to us in every detail, from the route to the quantity of crude oil, up to the shock data, that of the quotation of that cargo of black gold. The Ryman, the gigantic tanker, which arrived in front of the oil stills that coast Sarroch, had a cargo of no less than 700,000 barrels of Russian oil. An impressive quantity that will swing in the open sea for twenty days following an automatic mechanism of priority of unloading linked to the value of the oil. In practice, the ships with the most expensive oil have the priority for berthing, with those with the lowest value last. The Maltese ship loaded with Russian oil will wait at anchor until 10 April. As soon as it reaches the Sarroch wharf, we report the landing, publishing the cargo figures: Russian crude for a commercial value which, according to the information provided to us by highly trusted international brokers, would be 24.5 million euros. The calculations are disclosed by our investigation: the cost of the barrel would be 35 euros, compared to over 100 listed on the European market.

35 dollars never denied

The next day, the oil company, punctual as a Swiss watch, sends a three-line note: «Saras SpA reiterates, following what was already communicated on 14 March by the Chairman Massimo Moratti, that it has no longer addressed nor initiated further contracts with the Russian market, limiting itself to operations linked to contracts stipulated prior to the latest official communications from the Company». No denial on the price published by our newspaper, in fact a confirmation for those 35 dollars a barrel, compared to the 100 declared by the market. A figure that confirms scenarios that go far beyond the dispute of the last few hours with simplistic checks at service stations. It is all too evident, in fact, that the object of the dispute is all armored in the analysis of the extra profits generated and also declared in the last quarterly by the oil and energy industries. Billionaire figures, with an eloquent equation: oil actually purchased at low cost, or in any case not at the figures declared by the market, then resold, once refined, at gold market figures. Other than accused petrol stations, there are stratospheric interests and lobbies at stake, from state oil companies and not only to international traders .

Chain of command

A chain of command that orders the prices to be imposed on the consumer with a precise and marked direction every night in a network of over 20,000 petrol stations throughout Italy. The gas station attendants become the targets, while the companies, on the other hand, fatten themselves with both hands on extra profits which until now have not even been able to tax with a minimum rate. The checks carried out to date have limited themselves to contesting the lack of communication of the prices to the Ministry by the poor manager (a more formal than substantial fact) and an investigation by the antitrust on the town of Livigno for the hypothesis of a cartel by of small local companies. The autonomous union of fuel managers, Angac, led at national level by the Sardinian Giuseppe Balia, was once again explicit yesterday: the new government should be more direct and incisive on the truth and clarify once and for all. The union's question is rhetorical: who are all the players in the supply chain? Is it just the small petrol stations or is there someone unmentionable?

The Forgotten Powers

The answer is explicit: in the chain there are oil companies, trade associations, international agencies (platts) and big financial powers. The final question is disarming: who controls the huge profits of oil companies in a clearly strategic sector for the country? The independent gas station operators, those who rebel against the oil majors, outline the only possible solution in wartime: to fix a controlled price to counter a clear and exasperated speculation. The powers that be, however, do not agree. Everyone condemns the extra profits in the palaces of Rome, but nobody wants to stop them.

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