NickB79
NickB79's JournalKuwaiti Oil Tanker Is Set Ablaze After Attack Off the Coast of Dubai
Source: NY Times
A Kuwaiti crude carrier was “directly attacked” by Iranian forces while anchored at the Dubai port in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait’s state news agency said Tuesday morning, citing the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
The Dubai authorities responded to an episode involving a drone and a Kuwaiti oil tanker that caught fire in Emirati waters, the government’s media office said. No injuries were reported among the tanker’s 24 crew members, whose safety had been secured, the media office said. Maritime firefighting teams had been working to bring the fire under control and later said it had been extinguished.
There was no oil leakage from the tanker, the U.A.E. authorities said.
The Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation said in a statement that the tanker, called Al-Salmi, was fully laden when struck in what it said had been an Iranian attack. The vessel’s hull sustained damage, the company said, adding that the fire and damage had the potential to cause an oil spill in surrounding waters. Measures were being taken to put out the fire and mitigate any potential environmental damage, it said.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/world/middleeast/kuwait-oil-tanker-iran-drone.html
This link says she was bound for Qingdao, China. She measures 1089 feet and holds 2 million barrels of crude oil.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5629199/mmsi:447097000/imo
Live Updates: White House says Trump will "unleash hell" if Iran does not make deal
Source: CBS News
Iran's state-owned Press TV says the regime has rejected a list of points sent by the Trump administration via an intermediary in a bid to get peace talks going. Tehran has mocked the Trump administration for "negotiating with yourselves," but said earlier that it was reviewing terms for potential negotiations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday afternoon that talks between Washington and Tehran are still ongoing. She warned that President Trump will "unleash hell" if a peace deal is not made.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/live-updates/iran-war-trump-israel-tehran-mocks-us-warns-against-ground-invasion/
Guess he's already soured on the beautiful, valuable gift he received.
China has been preparing for a global energy crisis for years. It is paying off now
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/20/china-oil-reserves-global-energy-crisisThe US-Israel war on Iran plunged the Middle East into a deep conflict, with the strait of Hormuz – one of the most important waterways in global trade – all but closed and key energy facilities across the region under attack.
Oil exports from the Middle East have tumbled 61% over recent weeks, according to maritime tracking consultancy Kpler – roiling countries across Asia, which relied on the region for 59% of its crude imports in 2025, and have been left racing to conserve energy.
But China, the world’s second-largest economy, appears to be in a very different position to much of the continent.
Over the years, a lot of manufacturing has migrated from China to other Asian nations as their labor costs have risen. But without energy resources to keep factories humming in Vietnam or Thailand, some of it may flow back to China.
China Reins in Fertilizer Exports as War Pushes Up Global Prices
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-16/china-reins-in-fertilizer-exports-as-war-pushes-up-global-pricesThe government has asked exporters to halt outbound shipments of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends, people familiar with the matter said. Beijing also reiterated existing export restrictions on urea, quashing traders’ hopes that new sales quota would be issued soon, they said.
Food prices are gonna go wild.
Exclusive: Iran attacks wipe out 17% of Qatar's LNG capacity for up to five years, QatarEnergy CEO says
Source: Reuters
DUBAI/DOHA, March 19 (Reuters) - Iranian attacks have knocked out 17% of Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy's CEO and state minister for energy affairs told Reuters on Thursday.
Saad al-Kaabi said two of Qatar's 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes. The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years, he said in an interview.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iran-attack-damage-wipes-out-17-qatars-lng-capacity-three-five-years-qatarenergy-2026-03-19/
This will take 4-5% of GLOBAL supply off the world market. And there are still plenty of targets left to hit, if Iran chooses to.
U.S. Navy Minesweepers Assigned To Middle East Have Been Moved To Pacific
https://www.twz.com/sea/u-s-navy-minesweepers-assigned-to-middle-east-have-been-moved-to-pacific?utm_source=pushlyWe now have only 1 minesweeper configured warship in the Middle East 🤦
Iran begins laying mines in Strait of Hormuz, sources say
Source: CNN
Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all crude oil, according to two people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.
The mining is not extensive yet, with a few dozen having been laid in recent days, the sources said. But Iran still retains upward of 80% to 90% of its small boats and mine layers, one of the sources said, so its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which now effectively controls the strait along with Iran’s traditional navy, has the capability to deploy a “gauntlet” of dispersed mine-laying craft, explosive-laden boats and shore-based missile batteries, CNN has reported.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/10/politics/iran-begins-laying-mines-in-strait-of-hormuz
Looks like Iran is serious about closing Hormuz.
Diesel at $4.50/gal and rising fast, just as planting season is about to start
RIP, American farmers.
Sea levels already 'much higher' than many scientists had estimated
https://www.ft.com/content/eb581941-9ebe-4b1e-afed-1170c9fb4e71The study at Wageningen University in the Netherlands found that actual sea levels are on average about 30cm higher globally than estimates produced by the usual scientific models. The discrepancy between modelling and reality varies markedly around the world and is greatest in south-east Asia and Oceania, where the ocean is one to 1.5 metres higher on some coastlines than most impact assessments have assumed.
Brace for Trump's brave new world of 1.7C global warming
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/brace-trump-brave-world-1-155338098.htmlA paper by Columbia University predicts that we will have our first taste of a 1.7C world as soon as next year – a shock big enough to intrude on everybody’s consciousness.
One cause is the reversion from the current cooling weather pattern of La Niña in the South Pacific to the opposite El Niño pattern of cyclical warmth.
A less understood cause is that aerosol pollution has masked the latent heat effect of past CO2 emissions by around 0.5C and possibly more. Carbon lingers in the atmosphere for several hundred years. This aerosol effect is going into rapid reverse as the world cuts toxic particulates from coal plants, industry, cars and shipping.
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