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MABUX ARA LNG Bunker Index
Port LNG$/mton MGO LS$/mton Date
ARA
1 289.00
+70.00
1 280.00
-10.00
Aug 24
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Port	LNG$/mton	MGO LS$/mton	Date
ARA	1 289.00	+70.00	1 280.00	-10.00	Aug 24

MABUX Global Bunker Index

380HSFO$/mton		VLS FO$/mton		MGO LS$/mton		Date
633.07	-4.50	785.30	-2.41	1 370.21	-2.94	Aug 24

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MABUX Market Differential Index (MDI)

Correlation between market bunker prices (MBP) and MABUX Digital Bunker Price Benchmark (DBP)

All Indexes in $/mton	380HSFO			VLS FO			MGO LS			Date
All Indexes in $/mton	MBP Index	DBP Index	MDI	MBP Index	DBP Index	MDI	MBP Index	DBP Index	MDI	Date
Rotterdam	570	660	-90	672	743	-71	1 280	1 464	-184	Aug 24
Singapore	668	687	-19	833	845	-12	1 238	1 457	-219	Aug 24
Fujairah	655	637	+18	812	784	+28	1 436	1 520	-84	Aug 24
Houston	488	643	-155	701	752	-51	1 285	1 424	-139	Aug 24

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Latest News
- 2026-08-24
  Oil falls ahead of US announcement of new sanctions on Iran
  Oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel on Monday as investors took profits after recent gains and awaited details of expected new U.S. sanctions on Iran, which could further disrupt supplies from the Middle East. Brent crude futures were down $1.01,... Read more Oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel on Monday as investors took profits after recent gains and awaited details of expected new U.S. sanctions on Iran, which could further disrupt supplies from the Middle East.
  
  Brent crude futures were down $1.01, or 1.1%, to $93.38 at 1316 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $85.64 a barrel, down $1.42, or 1.6%.
  
  Both contracts posted a second consecutive weekly gain last week, rising more than 5%, as peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran stalled, constraining oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a route that once carried a fifth of global supplies.
  
  U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is set to hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Monday, has threatened to impose "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran. President Donald Trump has also threatened to impose sanctions on Iran’s trading partners.
  
  "Should the pledged embargo be launched, oil supply from the region will fall," said PVM analyst Tamas Varga, adding that the U.S. would likely tighten its naval blockade against Iranian oil exports and that Iran could retaliate with fresh strikes against oil installations in the Middle East.
  
  Iran has condemned U.S. plans to announce new sanctions and President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for a diplomatic solution. Pakistan’s army chief was visiting Tehran on Monday for mediation talks, ahead of the U.S. announcement.
  
  Fewer than 20 commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz at the weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, as Iranian and U.S. blockades restrict traffic through the chokepoint for energy shipments.
  
  However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
  
  TotalEnergies Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said the oil company was profitably moving oil through the Strait of Hormuz, with higher transport costs more than offset by steep discounts from crude producers.
  
  Iraq’s SOMO and QatarEnergy both offered crude for loading inside the strait in tenders, traders said.
  
  "$93 per barrel Brent, rather than $120-150, is telling us that enough oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz and from the Persian Gulf in general," SEB analyst Bjarne Schieldrop told Reuters, adding that a turning point could be if Iran decided to actually close Hormuz with rockets and drones.
  
  Brent has climbed back up to around $92 per barrel, from as low as $71 in June, due to inventory draws and a growing sense that Middle East disruptions can last longer, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note.
  
  The bank increased its Brent forecasts, projecting a peak at $100 in the fourth quarter.
  
  The International Energy Agency is not currently discussing a second release of oil from strategic reserves, its chief Fatih Birol said on Monday. Source: Reuters/Investing.com
- 2026-08-24
  GAIL, Deendayal Port Authority and DNV exploring LNG bunkering at Kandla Port
  Indian state-owned energy company GAIL (India), Deendayal Port Authority and class society DNV have signed a tripartite cooperation agreement for collaboration on setting up an LNG bunkering facility at Kandla Port. ‘The partnership brings together... Read more
- 2026-08-24
  Nearly 90% of China’s green methanol projects stuck in preliminary filing stage – says China-based GL Consulting
  China-based GL Consulting says a ‘stagnation of many green methanol projects’ is the partly the result of a ‘lack of mature bunkering infrastructure and compliance frameworks’. Melissa Li, business director of GL Consulting, a subsidiary of Shanghai... Read more
- 2026-08-24
  EC approves German State aid to help fishing companies with rising fuel bills
  The European Commission (EC) has approved a €4.5 million German State aid scheme for fishing and aquaculture companies facing increased fuel prices due to the Middle East crisis. The scheme was approved under the Middle East Crisis Temporary State... Read more
- 2026-08-24
  Petrobras and the Brazilian Navy working together on offshore logistics and ‘alternative energies’
  Petrobras and the Brazilian Navy have signed a letter of intent (LoI) for technical and strategic cooperation in a range of areas, including offshore logistics, maritime emergency response, search and rescue, and ‘alternative energies’. The Memorandum... Read more
- 2026-08-24
  MITSUI E&S commercialises ammonia dual fuel engines and fuel supply systems
  Japan’s MITSUI E&S Co. has announced it has completed the commercialisation of its large ammonia-fuelled marine engines and ammonia fuel supply systems (AFSS). As previously reported by ship.energy, last year, MITSUI E&S conducted land-based tests... Read more
- 2026-08-24
  U.S. FMC’s NZF statement sparks more LNG debate
  Setting out the U.S. position on the International Maritime Organization’s Net Zero Framework (NZF), Laura DiBella, the Chairman at the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), has insisted that: ‘The inclusion of market-proven alternative fuels, such as bio-LNG,... Read more
- 2026-08-24
  Oil falls as US prepares to unveil new Iran sanctions
  Oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel on Monday as investors took profits ahead of an expected announcement from Washington about imposing more sanctions on Iran that may further disrupt supplies from the Middle East. Brent crude futures fell $1.23,... Read more Oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel on Monday as investors took profits ahead of an expected announcement from Washington about imposing more sanctions on Iran that may further disrupt supplies from the Middle East.
  
  Brent crude futures fell $1.23, or 1.3%, to $93.16 by 0329 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $85.7 a barrel, down $1.36, or 1.6%.
  
  Both contracts posted their second weekly gains last week, up more than 5%, as peace talks between the U.S. and Iran hit a stalemate, capping oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world’s supply used to transit.
  
  U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, set to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday, has threatened to impose "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran. President Donald Trump has also threatened to impose sanctions on Iran’s trading partners.
  
  "It is unclear whether U.S. policy to economically isolate Iran will prove effective," Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note.
  
  "But if the U.S. measures do work as intended, Iran’s ability to respond via increased violence becomes a growing risk for energy markets to consider."
  
  Iran has condemned U.S. plans to announce new sanctions even as President Masoud Pezeshkian called for a diplomatic solution.
  
  "The more pragmatic members of the Iranian leadership would prefer to de-escalate but the hardliners would probably prefer to fight to the bitter end," IG markets analyst Tony Sycamore said.
  
  "I think by the end of this week we will have a good idea which side of the Iranian leadership has the upper hand."
  
  Offers of Iranian crude to Chinese buyers have declined and prices have jumped as the U.S. blockade has cut Tehran’s shipments, according to trade sources.
  
  However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
  
  Some analysts are expecting the recovery in supplies from the Middle East to take even longer than expected as the U.S.-Iran conflict persists.
  
  "Crude (supply) is tightening. Recent weeks have seen one of the sharpest declines in oil-on-water, whilst onshore inventories are declining as well, including in China," said Morgan Stanley analysts in a note.
  
  "A reduction in supply is driving this, most notably from the Middle East where several data sources put aggregate exports back at March/April levels," they said, slowing their assumption for a recovery in Middle East supplies.
  
  Source: Oilprice.com
- 2026-08-24
  Diesel Crisis Threatens to Outlast the Middle East War
  The outlook for the Middle East war remains grim, the U.S. just threatened Iran with the “toughest sanctions in history,” and the world is running out of stored fuels. To make matters worse, refining capacity is down considerably, and even if the outlook... Read more The outlook for the Middle East war remains grim, the U.S. just threatened Iran with the “toughest sanctions in history,” and the world is running out of stored fuels. To make matters worse, refining capacity is down considerably, and even if the outlook for the war suddenly changed and the U.S. and Iran made peace, the fuel squeeze will last for months—and so will its adverse effects on the global economy.
  
  Watching crude oil prices, one would think everything is under control. Both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate are below $100 per barrel, even if they are both up by around $20 per barrel from pre-war levels. Still, the price rise in crude oil is much more moderate than the inflation in fuel prices. Diesel in Europe, for instance, is up by 70% from pre-war levels, as reported by Reuters’ Ron Bousso this week.
  
  A separate Reuters report showed that diesel now costs more in Europe than jet fuel. This is the first time in over a year that the price difference between the two fuels is in favor of diesel, the publication noted, citing data from LSEG. The diesel crack spread in the United States hit triple digits earlier this week, for the first time ever. The premium over crude prices jumped to as high as $102 per barrel on Monday, before easing slightly to about $100 a barrel on Tuesday.
  
  Refinery margins are running at record highs across the world as the energy crisis unfolds. The first aspect of this crisis is the tighter supply of crude from the Middle East, which should be obvious enough since the media has been covering the topic on a daily basis for over six months. Yet there has also been refinery damage in the Middle East. In fact, per the International Energy Agency, as much as a fifth of that refining capacity, totaling some 9.6 million barrels daily, has been knocked out by hostilities.
  
  In addition to the Middle East crisis, the relentless drone strike barrage by Ukrainian forces against Russian refineries has led to fuel shortages and a ban on exports to secure more domestic supply. As a result, the world’s second-largest diesel exporter is closed for business, leaving the market for the “workhorse” fuel of the economy even tighter—and there are not enough refineries outside the Middle East and Russia to handle demand.
  
  That demand, however, remains substantial, so the United States, which has been insulated from the more direct effects of the two hot wars, has been ramping up fuel exports, with those hitting an all-time weekly average high of 1.9 million barrels daily. However, these exports have been driven this high not only by higher-than-usual refinery utilization rates. These rates have been supplemented by inventory draws, and that may become a problem.
  
  “Those flows are drawing down already tight U.S. inventories, the only major hub open for business, creating a global competition for fuel that is pushing diesel cracks back toward record seasonal highs,” Bank of America analysts warned in a note earlier this week, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The situation is especially serious in diesel because, as Goldman Sachs analysts warned also this month, stocks of the fuel globally were already tight before the war in the Middle East began.
  
  What this means is that inflation risks have surged and that they may well remain elevated for years, with global refinery runs in the second quarter of the year at 5.1 million barrels daily below last year’s levels, according to IEA data cited by Reuters’ Bousso. Yet demand for fuels fell by some 4 million barrels daily, which left a gap of over 1 million barrels daily—and let us not forget that the demand destruction was not voluntary. It was forced, and it was forced by soaring prices. In other words, demand destruction would not be very effective as protection against inflation.
  
  According to Bousso, the real energy crunch is only just starting. One could argue it started in March, but it took more time to become evident because it was a creeping crisis rather than a flashy, sudden event. That it will get worse still is hard to argue. “Europe has a tremendous diesel problem,” Eugene Lindell, head of refined products at consultancy FGE NexantECA, told Bloomberg earlier this month. “It will get ugly in the sense that you will probably see extremely high flat prices.”
  
  It will not get ugly only in Europe. The whole world uses diesel, and a lot of it—and as the weather gets colder in the northern hemisphere, demand for diesel rises, both for transport and for heating. Inflation is already on the rise: a 3.4% consumer price jump for the U.S. and eurozone prices up 2.9%, both on the back of higher energy costs, tell a short but compelling story about energy security. That may just be the beginning of the ripple effect of the wars on the world. Source: Oilprice.com
- 2026-08-24
  Every Chokepoint That Isn't Hormuz
  Hormuz volumes collapsed from 21.6 million bpd in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 4.9 million in the second quarter of 2026, and the displaced barrels landed on chokepoints already running hot. Bab el-Mandeb nearly doubled to 8.1 million bpd, straight into... Read more Hormuz volumes collapsed from 21.6 million bpd in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 4.9 million in the second quarter of 2026, and the displaced barrels landed on chokepoints already running hot. Bab el-Mandeb nearly doubled to 8.1 million bpd, straight into a Houthi blockade.
  Every alternative is either owned by a state with its own agenda or costs weeks. Lombok adds roughly $472,000 a voyage, the Cape adds 10 to 14 days, and Russia's Baltic crude has no alternative at all.
  Panama has cut maximum draft five times since July as El Nino drains Gatun Lake, with NOAA putting 81 percent odds on a very strong event by late 2026. Daily transit slots are still untouched at 36, and that is the number to watch.
  strait in turkey
  For six months the entire conversation about oil logistics has been about one strait, and you can hardly blame anyone for that. Hormuz has been effectively closed since late February, when the war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel started, and the EIA reckons only 4.9 million barrels a day of crude and liquids made it through in the second quarter.
  
  In the last quarter of 2025 that number was 21.6 million. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said in June that management of the strait “will never return to the way it was before the war,” which is about as clear as Tehran has been on anything lately.
  
  But 16.7 million barrels a day don't vanish off the map…They get rerouted, and rerouting oil means shoving it through some other narrow place that was already busy. Brent was around $91.62 on Wednesday and WTI at $85.56, and a fair slice of that is just the cost of the detour.
  
  So the more useful question right now isn't what's happening in Hormuz. It's what's happening everywhere else. There are five other chokepoints that matter, and every one of them is currently doing something. They're below in rough order of how likely they are to ruin somebody's quarter, starting with the one that already is.
  
  The Houthis followed Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea
  
  When Hormuz shut, Riyadh did the obvious thing and swung its export machine 800 miles west. Crude that used to load on the Gulf started moving instead through the East-West pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast. It worked, spectacularly. Yanbu was loading around 240,000 barrels a day this time last year. By June it was doing 3.5 million.
  
  All of that has to leave through the Bab el-Mandeb, an 18-mile gap between Yemen and Djibouti at the bottom of the Red Sea, and the volumes show it. The strait carried 4.2 million bpd through the first half of 2025 and 8.1 million in the second quarter of this year. It essentially doubled overnight.
  
  Then, on July 20, the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.
  
  They don't hold the Yemeni coastline at the strait itself…they hold ground roughly 100 kilometers away, which has turned out to be plenty, and they've since claimed strikes on Saudi tankers and on Aramco facilities at Jizan and Yanbu. Traffic responded predictably. Traceable transits fell to 200 in the week of Aug. 3, the lowest weekly count in a year, and a growing share of what still moves has switched off its transponders and gone dark.
  
  Two China-crewed tankers loaded Saudi crude at Yanbu last month and cleared the strait untouched. Windward's read on the pattern: “Enforcement is calibrated to crew and ownership, not cargo.” The blockade isn't really about the oil. It's about whose ship it's sitting on.
  
  Going around means the Cape of Good Hope, which adds about 3,500 nautical miles and 10 to 14 days. Reuters costed one Saudi cargo sent the long way at roughly $1.6 million in extra fuel plus another $1 million in canal fees. Riyadh can also push barrels north through Suez and the Sumed pipeline, but as the EIA puts it, those routes “take longer, are more expensive, and are more limited in capacity.” Which is the polite way of saying there isn't a good answer.
  
  The Bosphorus is wide open and it doesn't matter
  
  Here's a chokepoint that isn't blocked, isn't threatened, and is failing anyway.
  
  The Turkish Straits, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles together, moved 4.1 million barrels a day last quarter against 3.7 million in the first half of 2025.
  
  More than 40,000 ships went through the Bosphorus last year, threading a channel that narrows to 750 meters with a city of 16 million on both banks. Turkey couldn't close it to merchant traffic even if it wanted to.
  
  The 1936 Montreux Convention guarantees free passage in peacetime, and Ankara's authority extends only to warships and safety rules. It has leaned hard on the second, banning single-hull tankers since 2008 and keeping anything over 200 meters out at night, but the passage stays open.
  
  The problem is what sits at the other end of it…
  
  Ukrainian drones have been working over Novorossiysk for months. The Sheskharis terminal there, which had been moving about 650,000 barrels a day and roughly a fifth of Russia's seaborne crude, sat idle from July 21.
  
  The Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal next door handles more than 80 percent of Kazakhstan's exports and close to 2 percent of world supply, and it took enough hits that Kazakhstan started cutting production.
  
  The Greek-managed tanker Skiros was struck on Aug. 16 after loading there. In early August Turkey quietly began slowing transit permits for Novorossiysk-bound ships, which is entirely Montreux-compliant and also unmistakably a message.
  
  For Caspian crude there's a real bypass in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which skips the Black Sea altogether. For anything loading at a Russian Black Sea port there is nothing. No alternative route, no workaround, no long way around.
  
  That's what makes a chokepoint a chokepoint, and it's why Turkey has spent a decade talking about Canal Istanbul, a $25 billion parallel waterway that would sit outside Montreux and hand Ankara an actual dial to turn. It still isn't built.
  
  Panama's problem is rain
  
  Every other entry on this list is a story about people. Panama's is about weather, which at least makes it the only one you can forecast.
  
  The canal is a freshwater system perched 85 feet above sea level, and every ship that transits drains tens of millions of gallons of Gatun Lake out to sea. When it rains, that's fine. When it doesn't, the authority starts telling ships to ride higher in the water, and a ship riding higher is a ship leaving cargo on the dock.
  
  It hasn't been raining.
  
  Gatun sat just above 84 feet in early August, down close to a foot from July, with the canal projecting around 83 by September. Maximum draft has been cut five times since the summer started: 49.5 feet on July 3, then 49 on July 24, 48.5 on Aug. 15, 48 on Aug. 26 and 47.5 from Sept. 3. NOAA puts the odds of this El Nino reaching very strong status by late 2026 at 81 percent.
  
  Volumes are actually up, 3.2 million bpd last quarter against 2.3 million in the first half of 2025, though the cargo mix matters. Panama is a products and LPG route rather than a crude route, mostly U.S. Gulf barrels heading to Asia and the Pacific coast of South America. Around 5 percent of world maritime commerce moves through, and fiscal 2025 was a strong year at 13,404 transits and $5.7 billion in revenue.
  
  The figure that actually matters isn't the draft, though. It's daily transit slots, still holding at 36. Draft restrictions cost money. Slot cuts cost schedules, and schedules are what send ships to Suez or around the Horn instead.
  
  During the 2023-24 drought the canal went to 24 slots and then 18, drafts fell to 44 feet, Gatun bottomed at 79.6, and carriers left. Panama knows how that goes, which is why it's building the Rio Indio reservoir. That's $1.6 billion, and it won't hold a drop before 2031, so it does nothing for this El Nino.
  
  The workarounds aren't much better. Suez has its own problems right now, Cape Horn adds something like 8,000 nautical miles, and the U.S. rail land bridge is a fine answer for containers and no answer at all for a products tanker.
  
  Denmark's hands were tied in 1857
  
  Roughly 60 percent of Russia's seaborne crude leaves through three narrow channels between the Baltic and the North Sea. The Great Belt is the deep one that big tankers use, with the Øresund and the Little Belt taking the rest, and all three belong to a NATO member with excellent reasons to want a say over what passes through.
  
  The Copenhagen Convention, signed in 1857 back when Denmark was still charging tolls and irritating every maritime power in Europe, guarantees free passage and bars Copenhagen from levying fees. Of the five chokepoints here, the one administered by an EU and NATO government is the one whose owner has the least legal room to act.
  
  The Danish Maritime Authority counted 292 voyages by EU-sanctioned tankers through its waters in 2025. Around 175 shadow fleet tankers come through every month, averaging 17 years old, routinely sailing with transponders off and carrying insurance that wouldn't cover a fraction of a real spill.
  
  Copenhagen's answer has been environmental and port-state inspections at the Skagen anchorage and sulfur sniffers bolted to the Great Belt bridge. Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke's line is that these ships “pose a particular risk to our marine environment,” which is the diplomatic version of what everyone actually thinks of them.
  
  Volumes have barely moved, 4.7 million bpd last quarter against 4.9 million in the first half of 2025, and there's no alternative worth discussing. The Kiel Canal takes small vessels. Druzhba is mostly shut to the EU. Oil loaded at Primorsk or Ust-Luga goes through Danish water or it doesn't go.
  
  Which is why the real risk here isn't a closure. It's a wreck. A serious spill in a shallow, enclosed sea like the Baltic runs into the tens of billions of euros with cleanup measured in decades, and December 2024 already showed what that looks like, when two shadow fleet tankers broke apart in a Black Sea storm and produced the worst spill that region has seen this century. Nobody wants a rerun of that in the Great Belt in February.
  
  The quiet one is the big one
  
  The largest oil chokepoint on the planet isn't Hormuz and never was. It's the Strait of Malacca, which pinches down to 1.7 miles at the Phillips Channel near Singapore and carried 23.2 million barrels a day through the first half of 2025. Something like 94,000 vessels transited in 2024, hauling roughly a quarter of everything traded on earth.
  
  Last quarter it carried 16.6 million.
  
  That drop is the cleanest illustration anywhere of what closing Hormuz actually did, because most of the crude crossing Malacca started life in the Gulf and had already been through Hormuz once. Shut a strait in the Persian Gulf and you throttle another one 4,000 miles away without going anywhere near it.
  
  Nobody administers Malacca. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore manage it between them, there's no canal authority and no toll, and this spring Indonesia's finance minister floated the idea of introducing one, apparently taking his cue from Iran doing the same thing in Hormuz. Kuala Lumpur and Singapore shot it down and Jakarta backed off within days.
  
  The alternatives are the genuinely interesting part, because Indonesia owns those too. Sunda is the short way around and it's also shallow, hazardous and sitting directly under Krakatoa, which rules it out for a loaded VLCC. Lombok is deep enough for anything afloat and costs seven to eight days and roughly $472,000 a voyage, according to RSIS research. So the country that controls a chunk of the main route also controls both bypasses, a position no other littoral state on this list enjoys.
  
  Nothing is threatening Malacca right now. Piracy is up, 108 incidents across the Malacca and Singapore straits in 2025, a 74 percent jump and the worst in 19 years, but nearly all of it is opportunistic theft off slow-moving ships rather than anything strategic. The exposure that matters belongs to China, which brings around 80 percent of its imported oil through here and has been openly nervous about it since Beijing coined the phrase Malacca dilemma two decades ago.
  
  16.6 million barrels a day is an enormous amount of oil riding on nothing going wrong.
  
  Suez, the Cape, and the one nobody wants to talk about
  
  Suez moved 5.8 million bpd last quarter and revenue reached $1.26 billion, up 13 percent, but functionally it's the northern half of the Bab el-Mandeb problem rather than a separate one.
  
  The Cape of Good Hope isn't a chokepoint at all, which is precisely the point: 9.4 million bpd went around it last quarter and nobody on earth is capable of closing it. It's the release valve, and the toll it charges is time.
  
  Then there's the Taiwan Strait, which carries no meaningful oil volume of its own but sits square on the route from Malacca up to Japan and South Korea. Not a problem today, but it's the one that would make everything above look minor.
  
  And none of this is theoretical anymore…
  
  Saudi Arabia rebuilt its entire export logistics around a pipeline to the Red Sea and got blockaded there within weeks. Kazakhstan is cutting production because of drone strikes on a terminal in Russia. Panama is rationing water. Denmark is measuring sulfur in ship exhaust from a bridge because a treaty from 1857 left it nothing else to work with.
  
  So the next time a finance minister floats a transit fee, or a canal authority publishes a draft advisory, or somebody's navy suddenly needs more patrol boats in a place nobody was talking about last week, this is usually the reason. Source: Oilprice.com

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