Energy Crisis: Iran's Strait of Hormuz Blockade

0:00It's March 28th. This is Sydney News Today, powered by AI, I'm Cory with the story. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, with only Iranian tankers slipping through to destinations like China and India. This has triggered the biggest energy crisis in history, cutting off 14 million barrels a day of crude oil and refined products, plus one-fifth. Of global liquefied natural gas supplies, Iran keeps up its guerrilla-style attacks, dragging out the disruption. Trump's recent waivers on sanctioned Iranian and Russian oil add almost nothing new to the mix, mostly just floating storage that covers the shortfall. For another day or so, meanwhile, physical oil deliveries to Asia, fetch prices around $145 a barrel, way above futures, and Gulf producers have. Shut in 10% of world output due to full storage tanks. Gulf leaders are furious at what they see as casual U.S. attitudes, with energy secretary Chris Wright betting on demand drops, and more drilling to fix.

1:02Things. Iran mocks paper market tricks, questioning if they can deliver real fuel. Outrage is building over America's eroding credibility amid alliance strains. Damage keeps mounting fast, with 40 major energy sites severely hit across nine countries. Iraq faces must-to-restar fields, and Qatar needs three to five years to fix its giant LNG plant. U.S. shale drilling is slowing, rigs down from 300 to 243 in key areas. China sits pretty with huge reserves, covering six months of imports, cheat borrowing, and plans for sieges, decoupling from global price spikes. As U.S. munitions and stocks burn low in this diversion, Beijing gains ground, poised for a new Gulf, tilted its way when tensions ease.