Two Chokepoints, One Day: Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Push Oil Past $100
By: Alistair Kroon – SeaPRwire – Oil jumped hard on September 10 because two chokepoints tightened at once. Hormuz stayed contested. Bab el-Mandeb came under fresh pressure from Houthi advances on shore and islands. Benchmark crude cleared one hundred dollars. Diesel in the United States broke six dollars a gallon for the first time. The market priced the risk that neither waterway would return to normal soon. That is the immediate fact on the board. Official statements from the same day lay out the sequence. The U.S. Treasury added individuals and entities linked to Iran’s proxy networks in the Middle East to its sanctions list. The list includes members of Lebanese Hezbollah. The move forms part of the broader economic isolation campaign against Iran. U.S. Central Command reported that its maritime blockade of Iran had already forced ninety-six commercial ships to change course. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy stated it destroyed a U.S. unmanned surface ve...