re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

The Donetsk Airport is being used as a transport hub for Shahed drones manufactured further east. As this bottleneck is within range, it will continue to be hit.

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You realize that as oil prices go up the US, the number one oil producer does well too.

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Yes, but the number one oil producer does well in all circumstances.

Not so their customers.

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The vessel pictured is not a tanker but an 'OBO'

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OBO started being scrapped in the mid 80's.. They had serious structural issues. I've been out of that field for decades, so unaware if any have been built since then.

Even critics of Trump as retired generals say this will be short lived.

It will in fact be a fiasco when ships being sailing through the strait again.

There is NO ACTUAL CLOSURE. Ship owners own the P&I clubs, insurers for those not aware of ship insurance, and are using this to raise rates is what is going on per John Konrad of GCaptain. Ships definitely sailed during the Iraq/Iran tanker war of the 80's.

There are major pipelines to the Gulf of Oman and to the Red Sea, thus crude from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman is still flowing even if at a reduce loading capacity for Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, the Black Sea Sitting Ducks are down to their last hide out.

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"In February and March, the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) began a systematic campaign to dislodge the Russian Black Sea Fleet from its main harbor, Novorossiysk.

After the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) destroyed Crimea's air defenses in 2025, and destroyed aircraft at airfields designed to monitor maritime space and combat maritime drones. In November 2025, Novorossiysk received its first serious warning: the destruction of an S-400 battery (one of two that provided cover). Then came strikes on oil terminals by naval drones, followed by a strike by a similar drone on a submarine in port. And finally, on March 2 and 5, six ships were hit in two waves of drone strikes. Apparently, the [Ukrainian] drones took the shortest route through the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, where several TOR-3 mobile armored radar installations had previously been destroyed.

In any case, Ukraine has plenty of drones, and new ones are constantly being produced. Meanwhile, Russia's warships in the Black Sea are down to about two-thirds of what they were at the start of the war. Most importantly, they have nowhere to go, except perhaps, if the draft allows, to escape down the Volgodon River. But not to the Caspian Sea, where Ukrainian drones can easily reach and have already damaged at least three warships. They're off somewhere in the upper reaches of the Volga, Oka, or Moskva Rivers, under the protection of the capital's air defenses."

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Oh really...?

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Everywhere and far too many sources to cite.

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Which means you couldn't find any either.

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The Strait is not mined. There are no Iranian patrols.

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Immaterial. The threat is from drones.

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The only reason is tanker owners want to be paid more PERIOD. They own the ship insurers known at Protection and Indemnity Clubs. Now, the P&I Clubs may employ reinsurance companies, but are still controlled by the actual shipowners.

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Actual shipowners that act against the P&I mandate lose their actual P&I coverage. Especially in these circumstances where the financial pressure on these Clubs is huge. Other shipowners in the P&I will show no mercy.

These organizations are usually loathe to pull the force majeure card, but in this circumstance with more than a hundred vessels affected (and more stacking up every day), they may have no choice. We know the reinsurers will certainly do it. So any renegade owner will be dealt with summarily.

Mike Pence? Really?

The sky isn't falling, but everything under it can and will get far more expensive if this isn't resolved quickly. And by resolved, I mean directly with the Iranian government (if we can find out who that currently is...) - a group of people that are not in the mood for concessions. Especially not to Trump and the Israelis.

The Chinese may be able to do it, but only if they want to. If they get passage for their cargos, they will do nothing to help anyone else.

So let's think about that - the real possibility that the Chinese directly control crude and petroleum cargos coming out of the PG. If you and I can see this in just a few hours, WTF kind of idiots do we have running the White House now?

TDS is a terrible mental illness.

He has a very bad case of it for sure. I still want to know when OBOs returned to shipping. It was a great idea in the 70's to haul ore or coal to one place then pick up oil for the return trip. The structural issues doomed them to shipbreakers long before their lifespan came close a natural end.

FWIW, a little trick used by seamen to make oily cargo holds smell good enough to load grain was a bottle of vanilla extract per hold closed up overnight. Ruined an environmental scientist demonstration of how the nose could detect oil contaminated soil that way, when I was on a project in St. Louis. My contact for GM was a former SEAL environmental engineer who jumped on my suggestion. Execs with GM Truck and Bus Group came down to watch the guy's demonstration fail miserably. The two of us were chuckling behind them.

Krarkiv update...

Death toll from Russian morning strike on Kharkiv rises to 11

Roman Petrenko, KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — 7 March, 17:32

The death toll following a Russian morning strike on Kharkiv has risen to 11.

Source: Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv

Quote: "The tenth body has been found under the rubble of a five-storey building."

Details: The oblast military administration said only fragments were found of the eighth body.

Among those killed are a 13-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy.

A further 16 people were injured and needed medical assistance.

Update: At 17:09, Terekhov said emergency workers found fragments of another body during the search and rescue operation at the site of the overnight missile strike. The death toll has therefore risen to 11.

Background: Russian forces struck a multi-storey residential building in the city of Kharkiv with a ballistic missile on the night of 6-7 March, killing seven people and injuring at least 10.

Ukrainska Pravda