It's interesting that you invoke Lincoln. Because I was just talking to a friend the other day about some parallels between the first two years of Trump's term & the first two of Buchanan's. But Buchanan's remains far worse, at least so far. Let's hope that Trump'd damage doesn't exceed Buchanan's!
![The system relies on one set of tankers shuttling through the Strait of Hormuz, running the gauntlet past Iranian attacks, before transferring their cargoes to another group of ships waiting in the Gulf of Oman.
The increased flow of oil has eased pressure on benchmark oil prices, with Brent crude trading below $98 a barrel in London on Tuesday.
But the method was also “very inefficient”, according to Hardy, since ships are tied up waiting for cargoes for several days or weeks at a time, reducing the pool of tankers available elsewhere.
The resulting shortage has sent freight rates soaring and made it increasingly difficult for traders and refiners to calculate the delivered cost of crude.
“It is creating a lot of stress for everybody because nobody really knows, to the nearest $2, $3, $4 [a barrel], how much their shipping costs are going to be,” said Hardy. “That creates a difficult set of decisions for people to make day to day.”
Refiners unable to charter ships, or unwilling to pay sky-high rates, are aggressively competing for supplies that are easier to deliver. One oil executive said cargoes of North Sea oil were selling for $145 a barrel last week.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5zmqxbsweq2uo7ujs6v3m4n5/bafkreibfgbpsbhbaemnajpvlxjs37if7pnlfc7o4qov2twylngn5ukfzey)
