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Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

tomshardware.com

31–40 of 675 posts

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha yes, the grand seismic risks (economic risk in single digit percentages of the profits available) but not talking about not using them, they are actively and very costly going to fill them with concrete to ensure in the future (even in whatever extreme scenario) they cannot be used again. On top of the fact that we suckered ourselves into long term agreements which led to having to sell our own gas, far below ma…

> haha yes, the grand seismic risks (economic risk in single digit percentages of the profits available) If I lived in the region I wouldn't really care if the economic risk is single digit percentage. I would prefer my house to keep standing. > they are actively and very costly going to fill them with concrete to ensure in the future (even in whatever extreme scenario) they cannot be used again. I think you are argu…

Groningen gas field produced 40 billion m3 a year. 100m3 is 1MWh, currently sold for 50 eur. So the production would generate revenue of 20 billion eur a year. Tax it at 10%, get 2B eur. Buy/build houses for 400k a piece, 5.000 a year. There are cca 10.000 houses with minor or major damage. In 2 fucking years everyone gets a new second house for free and we get cheap gas.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#32
post #20

Qatar is probably intentionally shutting down production of gas and oil in order to pressure the US to stop, independently of Iranian attacks. In that respect they may be bombed by Iran but they have the same interests

Shutting down production doesn't pressure the US at all since the oil and gas can't go anywhere anyway. They're shutting it down because they have to, there's nowhere to put the oil.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#33
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the most disappointing things to me. These people have such resources and the limit of their vision is: bang young girls, accumulate bling, push divisive hateful politics, start wars. That's it. That's the best they can do. Even nominally selfish far-sighted things like genuinely funding a deep research program for life extension is not really something they're into. I mean some of them are "into" it in…

> These people have such resources and the limit of their vision is: bang young girls, accumulate bling, push divisive hateful politics, start wars. I really don't like how Bill Gates and Microsoft made their money, but at least he has realized that in his twilight years to try to make amends via humanitarian work. Buying the stairway to heaven.

Except that foundations are massive tax shelters - maybe he did some good along the way, but the also blocked IP release of covid vaccine technologies

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#34

Aren’t there huge stockpiles of helium in the US? I can buy party sized tanks at Target or big tanks at the usual places like welding supply places.

A lot of the balloon use has switched to nitrogen (helium became much, much more expensive after the strategic helium reserve was sold off)

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#35
post #30
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the most disappointing things to me. These people have such resources and the limit of their vision is: bang young girls, accumulate bling, push divisive hateful politics, start wars. That's it. That's the best they can do. Even nominally selfish far-sighted things like genuinely funding a deep research program for life extension is not really something they're into. I mean some of them are "into" it in…

I think about how we could've paid for two brand new, gigawatt-scale nuclear power plants for the same amount of money as Elon Musk flushed down the toilet to try to shut down a website he didn't like. Extreme wealth is a mental illness, and wealth caps are healthcare.

It's worse when you realize that Musk at least does something with his insane wealth, even if it's also insane.

Most either do nothing really of note, or donate it to "causes", which may be good, but kind of boring.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#36
post #30
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the most disappointing things to me. These people have such resources and the limit of their vision is: bang young girls, accumulate bling, push divisive hateful politics, start wars. That's it. That's the best they can do. Even nominally selfish far-sighted things like genuinely funding a deep research program for life extension is not really something they're into. I mean some of them are "into" it in…

I think about how we could've paid for two brand new, gigawatt-scale nuclear power plants for the same amount of money as Elon Musk flushed down the toilet to try to shut down a website he didn't like. Extreme wealth is a mental illness, and wealth caps are healthcare.

At this point I wish he had shut it down. Instead he turned into a mouthpiece for the right and duped his followers into thinking he’s “liberated” the site and made it into some bastion of free speech.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#37
post #17

Aren’t there huge stockpiles of helium in the US? I can buy party sized tanks at Target or big tanks at the usual places like welding supply places.

Messer Completes Acquisition of Federal Helium System from BLM https://www.messer-us.com/press-releases/messer-completes-ac...

Why did we sell it instead of lease? This seems like something that should be in public hands.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#38
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That's one of the most disappointing things to me. These people have such resources and the limit of their vision is: bang young girls, accumulate bling, push divisive hateful politics, start wars. That's it. That's the best they can do. Even nominally selfish far-sighted things like genuinely funding a deep research program for life extension is not really something they're into. I mean some of them are "into" it in…

People will always keep looking to politicians to make the world better despite their terrible track record.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#39
post #20

Qatar is probably intentionally shutting down production of gas and oil in order to pressure the US to stop, independently of Iranian attacks. In that respect they may be bombed by Iran but they have the same interests

Where are they supposed to put all that gas and oil if they can't transport it? I don't think they have much choice here. And as far as I understand, helium is a byproduct of the extraction, so they can't choose to keep only the helium.

However Qatar stopped production before the straits were officially closed and their stated reason is "due to military attacks", also Russian or Chinese ships can pass

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#40
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are they supposed to put all that gas and oil if they can't transport it? I don't think they have much choice here. And as far as I understand, helium is a byproduct of the extraction, so they can't choose to keep only the helium.

However Qatar stopped production before the straits were officially closed and their stated reason is "due to military attacks", also Russian or Chinese ships can pass

There is no such thing as "officially closed". The moment people start shooting there, driving a ship across becomes dangerous. This was an absolutely predictable consequence of the attacks on Iran, you didn't need to wait until several tankers were burning to know these attacks were likely to happen and the strait would become essentially too risky to pass.
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