Can the world get its supply of oil by bypassing the Strait of Hormuz? (firstpost.com)

by bitwank 37 comments 31 points
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37 comments

[−] alecco 54d ago
Eventually, yes. But 1) it's not a magic tap on/off, 2) refineries are specialized for specific types of oil, 3) a lot of ships are stuck there, 4) wells and refineries usually take a long time to restart.

Serious oil traders are saying it will take months or even more than a year to get back to normal.

The only thing containing prices at the moment is many exporters sold futures to lock-in prices for the rest of the year (it wasn't market manipulation as many suspected). But once they are sold out we'll have some interesting price discovery.

https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/ICEEUR-BRN1!/forward-cur...

https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/NYMEX-CL1!/forward-curve...

[−] dyauspitr 54d ago
But how? Iran is right next door. They can target any mode of getting oil out of there. Not just the strait of Hormuz but any pipelines that lead away from the region can just as easily be targeted. One Shahed to the pipeline is all it would take.
[−] alecco 54d ago
At these higher prices you can safely bet other producers are drilling new wells, adding more infrastructure, and upgrading refineries.
[−] dyauspitr 54d ago
That’s not going to replace the sheer volume of the Middle East.
[−] alecco 54d ago
Yes it can. It's only 20%. The difference is ME is very cheap to extract relative to other places like shale.
[−] Detrytus 54d ago
In theory yes, but in practice those drones would have to take a really long flight over enemy territory giving more opportunities to shoot them down. And it’s not like they are difficult to shoot down, they are cheap crap, their only advantage being that there’s a lot of them
[−] yread 54d ago
The ships shortage is an underreported problem. Follow this guy

https://nitter.net/ed_fin

(LLMs are good at explaining the jargon). Shipping just got 3-4 times more expensive. Not just crude oil, also bulk, chemicals... There are not enough ships and there is not enough bunker diesel - normally costs 400$/t, now 1100$/t

https://shipandbunker.com/prices/apac/ea/cn-hok-hong-kong

[−] senectus1 54d ago
all of this is assuming the US and israel will LET this new bypass go unhindered.
[−] wat10000 54d ago
Tautologically yes. Whatever the world gets is its supply. Depending on how much can be done to bypass the Strait, that supply may diminish substantially. Already has, I suppose.

It would be nice if this was the thing that finally kicked governments into gear to get off our reliance on oil. But I don’t think 20% is quite big enough to make that happen.

[−] jleyank 54d ago
Don’t forget the world needs LNG and the stuff made from petrochemicals such as fertilizer. They need to make chem plants as well as refineries to go with drilling new wells and run them harder. Get Venezuela up, but that’s probably O(years).

Is there enough copper and power to get those ev stations up in the us? Cuz now’s their chance.

[−] fhub 54d ago
For a less simplistic look at a similar question I'd recommend this article.

https://hyperfocusinhalifax.substack.com/p/why-arent-oil-pri...

[−] atoav 54d ago
*Can the world have an American President that for once doesn't start pointless wars to distract from internal scandals?
[−] lerp-io 54d ago
strait closed is only applicable for usa ally ships so ur country just needs to be neutral or iran ally.. for american its not applicable bc they have their own oil/venezuela
[−] ZebusJesus 54d ago
Is it possible yes, is it feasible absolutely not
[−] aaron695 54d ago
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[−] verdverm 54d ago
tl;dr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

Many other things pass through the straight besides oil