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The secret reason oil prices didn't spiral after the Iran war | DW News

Aug 14, 2026 #dwbusiness
When the Iran war threatened a global economic collapse, China shockingly slashed its crude oil imports by 40% from February to June. This brutal pullback acted as a massive shock absorber, stabilizing oil prices when everyone expected chaos. Watch the full breakdown of this high-stakes economic gamble.


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Trump’s Iran war leaves US oil reserves so low caverns risk damage​


America’s emergency oil stockpile has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years, with experts warning that ongoing withdrawals for the war with Iran could permanently damage the underground caverns holding the crude.

The warnings arrive as American drivers face unprecedented gas prices for late summer. Today’s AAA National Average for a gallon of regular gasoline sits at $4.07, marking the highest levels on record for mid-August.

Concerns over the physical limits of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve center on the unique geology of its storage network. The crude is held within 60 salt caverns thousands of feet below ground at four sites across Texas and Louisiana.

To extract crude, operators pump fresh water into the bottom of a cavern to force oil up to pipeline intakes. However, petroleum engineering professor Siddharth Misra of Texas A&M University told CNBC that repeated rapid drawdowns wash away salt walls.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...erns-risk-damage/ar-AA2acufn?ocid=socialshare
 

WS1,200. $25m for One Voyage: Sinokor’s VLCC Gamble Is Paying Off in Hormuz​

From buying 35 VLCCs in a single month, to MSC moving to acquire a 50% stake, and then becoming a key provider of emergency tanker capacity for ADNOC, Sinokor’s aggressive VLCC expansion is now taking on a very different meaning. The latest Basrah-India fixture at WS 1,200 shows that what Sinokor accumulated was not simply ships — it was control over scarce, executable capacity.

A single VLCC voyage is now costing as much as $25 million.

India’s Reliance Industries has reportedly chartered a VLCC controlled by South Korea’s Sinokor Merchant Marine to load around 2 million barrels of crude from Basrah, Iraq, at an extraordinary rate of around WS 1,200.

www.xindemarinenews.com

WS1,200. $25m for One Voyage: Sinokor’s VLCC Gamble Is Paying Off in Hormuz

From buying 35 VLCCs in a single month, to MSC moving to acquire a 50% stake, and then becoming a key provider of emergency tanker capacity for ADNOC, Sinoko...
www.xindemarinenews.com
 

Oil profits have more than doubled. Here’s what Trump escalating the Iran war could mean for XOM and CVX​

  • Exxon and Chevron more than doubled year-ago profits, combining for $26.6 billion in Q2 as the Strait of Hormuz closure spiked crude prices.
  • Gas prices surged from under $3 to $4.06 a gallon since the Iran war began, and Trump threatening to bomb mediator Oman risks driving them higher.
  • Exxon and Chevron's integrated models capture profits from well to pump, but a Hormuz peace deal could collapse the windfall almost overnight.
  • The most widely read finance newsletter on Substack isn't published by a bank, it's Doomberg, where 383,000+ readers get the energy and macro analysis the mainstream press misses. 24/7 Wall St. readers save 17% on their first year here.
Oil has become one of the clearest financial beneficiaries of the Iran war -- and one of the biggest headaches for American drivers. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global energy shipments, remains effectively closed, with little tanker traffic moving through the waterway.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...-for-xom-and-cvx/ar-AA2ajjLm?ocid=socialshare
 

China's state shippers deploy oil tankers outside Gulf, avoid chokepoints, sources say​

SINGAPORE, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Two Chinese shipping giants have stopped sending oil tankers through two Middle East chokepoints amid ongoing conflict and are instead collecting oil cargoes outside the Gulf, according to three industry executives, tanker trackers and a ship broker.

State-controlled COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation and China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) have kept their tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb since late July, according to tanker tracker Vortexa and a ship broker, with security concerns curbing oil shipments to the world's largest importer.

Yemen's Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, while the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed after a brief U.S.-Iran interim peace deal reached in June fell apart.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...ints-sources-say/ar-AA2amHXs?ocid=socialshare
 
www.drewry.co.uk

The global diesel crunch: Russia's refinery crisis meets Middle East turmoil

18 Aug 2026: The global refined products market faces a severe supply crunch due to Middle East crude feedstock constraints from the US-Iran conflict and Ukrainian drone attacks disrupting Russian refinery capacity and exports, leading Russia to impose export bans and consider imports, while the...
www.drewry.co.uk www.drewry.co.uk
 

Russia runs out of petrol at seven in 10 stations as fuel crisis worsens​

Ukrainian drone campaign on Russia's energy infrastructure has caused fuel shortages so severe that the Kremlin has admitted it. Queues in Moscow are forming for the first time, and Russia has brought back banned low-grade fuel to plug the gap, while detaining residents who complained publicly.​

Petrol was available at fewer than three in 10 petrol stations across Russia on Wednesday, the latest sign that a second wave of fuel shortages is hitting harder than the first, with queues forming at pumps in Moscow for the first time.

Fuel restrictions — including limits on the volume sold per customer, QR-based rationing and odd-even number plate schemes — were in place in nearly all regions as of last Saturday, according to Benzinmap, which tracks restrictions and prices nationwide.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...l-crisis-worsens/ar-AA2axvQT?ocid=socialshare
 
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