Why is this company significant?
BASF is the largest chemical manufacturer and producer in Europe, and most likely the largest in the world. Just one of their plants in Germany is 10 square kilometres. That's larger than most cities.
BASF produces chemicals used by virtually every industry in the world, to the world. In one way or another, it's a safe bet that almost everything you use and enjoy in your daily life exists because of BASF.
BASF is one of the largest producers of ammonia, if not the largest. Ammonia is critical for many industries and products and manufacturing, but specifically the manufacture and production of fertilizers.
Without modern fertilizers and modern production capabilities, the world starves. Literally.
At current farming capacities and capabilities, meaning current developed and producing farmland, if we lost modern farming industry capabilities, such as synthetic fertilizers, the global farming industry would only be able to support (feed) roughly 1 billion people. There are almost 8 billion people on the planet.
That's not taking into account harvesting, transportation, processing, packaging, distribution, etc. All of these require chemicals or products made or supplied by BASF, either directly or indirectly somewhere in the supply chain.
BASF itself has stated that they believe shutting down certain pieces of machinery, which haven't been shut down since they were brought online in the early 1960s, would result in catastrophic failure of the equipment itself and would permanently be offline.
BASF has also stated that they need 80% of the energy supplied by the Nord 1 pipeline to remain operational.
Both pipelines are now destroyed. Repairs will take YEARS, if ever.
Gas cannot be supplied in any adequate way by ship. Never mind the cost of that form of transportation or the environmental risk of transportation by ship and sea.
At this point, it is certain that BASF will cease operations. Probably within weeks. Especially as Europe is scrambling for energy sources to keep their people from freezing to death.
I don't know if this adequately describes the level of catastrophe we are facing, especially in Europe.
This was an act of war. And it was a death blow to Europe for sure, and will severely harm the US and most other nations.
https://www.businesslend.com/business/basf-to-downsize-permanently-in-europe/
H/t (The Red Pill)
It IS possible to feed the world without fertilizers. It just requires that 90% of the population be involved in agriculture, and live near their food.
We would have to eat a lot more meat, as it takes a lot of cows to fertilize a field to grow wheat and grain.
We would also have to give up things like, you know, hot water and electricity.
We certainly need more illegal alien farm workers, and I hear they shit a lot!
Sounds like a plan
Don't get me wrong, this IS bad, but not as bad as it's being made out here. BASF operates in virtually every major developed country on the planet. Outside of Germany, they have the second most plants here in the US. I think roughly 20-30% of their operations are here in the US.
But all is not as bad as it seems. Well, at least for those of us outside of Europe. Here in the US for example, BASF only makes up around 10-15% of our domestic chemical production. We don't really import much in terms of Ammonia and other fertilizer chemicals. Nor do we import much in terms of Chemicals in general. In the US (and North/South American in general really) Exxon and Chevron are king of the hill. Those two make up something like 80% of all petroleum product production (including petrochemicals like BASF) in the Western hemisphere.
So yeah, Europe is getting screwed big time, but the rest of the world isn't completely screwed quite yet.
A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age
That's what we're headed for if enough of the supply chain goes down -- a world where the grid is down permanently, or at least for decades, and where electric lights are gone along with everything else that runs on electricity or depends on something that does.
Restarting, fixing, or recreating the machines that make the machines that make the parts of the grid and everything else we're used to won't happen overnight. It won't be a push-button job -- it will be the work of lifetimes, especially since many of the people who know how to do such things will be gone.
The easy-to-grab foundations for industry (oil that literally oozes out of the ground, easily-mined near-the-surface iron and other metals and minerals needed for industry, among other things) are harder to come by now. Computer chips are made in staggeringly complex fabs that cost billions of dollars, and which rely on an intricate and sophisticated supply chain. Knowledge of HOW they're made (assuming it even survives) is nowhere near enough to actually GET chips manufactured. Etc.; go down a list of industries and imagine starting them up again after they've sat idle for years and the supply chains they require are as wrecked as everything else.
America was born in a world lit only by fire; commercially successful electric lighting was a century away. But people knew HOW to live in that world and had the tools and infrastructure appropriate to that world.
We don't.
So here's hoping it doesn't come to that point.
Just a few quickies ....
https://www.worldometers.info/gas/netherlands-natural-gas/
this is an estimate of the year 2017. Note the disparity between the reserves, that do not include those out in the north sea. 28 trillion cubic feet = 800 billion m³ of gas, while the consumption is a meager 1.4 billion a year. All this gas is sold abroad and then re-imported against higher prices.
However, if needed, The Netherlands could provide enough gas to keep BASF going for another 15 years without compromising domestic use.
However, the current junta does not want to pay one sou to those living in the Province of Groningen as a compensation of damages to their real estate.
It is now easy to see how this works.
If the saving of BASF is in the interest of the plan, they will do so. If not, bad luck chummy.
For one, farmers in Europe actually do not need artificial fertilizers. These fertilizers are geared towards the crops beings planted or sowed. With the amount of manure produced, there is enough to improve farmland and extract ammonia. Maybe decentralization is now possible by the demise of the giant.
I fondly remember my first blanc cassette: BASF CHROOM.
Lol...Me too...
Ahhhh... Dolby C.