{"id":46738,"date":"2019-06-18T12:52:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46738"},"modified":"2019-06-18T12:52:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:52:50","slug":"oil-traders-have-bigger-worries-than-a-new-hormuz-tanker-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46738","title":{"rendered":"Oil traders have bigger worries than a new Hormuz tanker war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.platts.com\/2019\/06\/18\/oil-traders-hormuz-tanker-war\/\">Oil traders have bigger worries than a new Hormuz tanker war<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oil tankers ablaze in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spglobal.com\/platts\/en\/market-insights\/latest-news\/oil\/061419-factbox-oil-lng-shipping-markets-digest-new-risks-after-strait-of-hormuz-attack\"><strong>Gulf of Oman<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;and the US pointing the finger at Iran should be enough to send the price of the world\u2019s most vital commodity skyrocketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, oil prices have barely budged. Traders are not buying into the theory that Tehran wants a war, but they are worried about demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dated Brent assessed by S&amp;P Global Platts \u2013 the world\u2019s most important oil benchmark \u2013 spiked by over 4% following the attacks on June 13 and traded briefly just above $62\/b. On the face of it, this modest rise doesn\u2019t reflect the risk to almost a fifth of the world\u2019s oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow 21-mile-wide channel separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI see the limited reaction in the crude oil market as an indication of traders saying \u2018hang on a minute\u2019,\u201d said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. \u201cIf Iran did this it would be an open invitation to the US to step up its involvement and that should have sent the price much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Supporting Hansen\u2019s point, crude had futures tumbled earlier in the week, with Brent falling below $60\/b for the first time since late January, after data showed a larger-than-expected increase in US crude oil inventories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Demand-side worries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The combination of rising stockpiles, tepid demand growth and fears of a slowing global economy has been enough to wipe $13 off the value of a barrel of Brent crude since May, despite the recent attacks on oil shipping and infrastructure in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week\u2019s attacks were described by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as \u201can unacceptable campaign of escalating tension by Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tobfeee5pvufw4cd-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pon_20190614_tanker_attack-003-1-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tobfeee5pvufw4cd-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pon_20190614_tanker_attack-003--e1560510168943.jpg\" alt=\"Infographic on June 13 tanker attack near strait of Hormuz\" class=\"wp-image-30572\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oil traders have bigger worries than a new Hormuz tanker war Oil tankers ablaze in the&nbsp;Gulf of Oman&nbsp;and the US pointing the finger at Iran should be enough to send the price of the world\u2019s most vital commodity skyrocketing. Instead, oil prices have barely budged. Traders are not buying into the theory that Tehran wants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[588,20030,862],"class_list":["post-46738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-geopolitics","tag-oil","tag-sp-global-platts","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46739,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46738\/revisions\/46739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}