China's Teapot Refiners Were Supposed to Cut Runs — Instead They Just Paid a Record Price for More Crude

China’s Teapot Refiners Were Supposed to Cut Runs — Instead They Just Paid a Record Price for More Crude

If Shandong’s teapots are willing to pay record prices for barrels while margins are supposedly getting squeezed, the run-cut story from last week is already stale. Yuan-priced crude futures in China rallied to the highest level on record as the shutdown of an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia hurt global supplies and refiners in the largest importer bought more cargoes, with prices advancing to as much as 929.4 yuan a barrel. That’s a bet the squeeze gets worse before it gets better — bullish for global crude, bearish for anyone assuming Chinese demand caps this rally.

#China #RefiningMargins #CrudeSupply #OilPrices #TeapotRefiners

Update: The Gulf-Iran Summit Meant to Fix Hormuz Never Happened — Riyadh and Tehran Can’t Even Agree on Why

Update: the Oman-brokered meeting we flagged as already priced into $100 oil didn’t just get preempted by markets — it collapsed entirely. Officials from Iran, Iraq and GCC nations were scheduled to meet in Salalah Monday to confer on temporary Hormuz routes, but the region’s officials announced the postponement Sunday night without giving a new date. Iran’s foreign ministry blamed Saudi objections, while US outlets reported Riyadh feared the wording would lock in a new status quo it can’t accept. No diplomatic off-ramp means the pipeline outage and Hormuz chokehold both run indefinitely.

#StraitOfHormuz #SaudiArabia #Iran #GCC #OilGeopolitics

Iran Just Found a Chokepoint Bigger Than Mines: Threatening the Insurers Who Cover Hormuz Tankers

Mines sink individual ships; blacklisting insurers sinks entire trade lanes. After the supertanker El Gaia burned following a mine strike on a route Tehran calls forbidden, Iran’s IRGC stressed the strait remains closed and under its naval control, while the Persian Gulf Strait Authority warned insurance companies and classification societies against servicing vessels on its updated ‘violating’ list. If underwriters comply, war-risk cover for Hormuz transits could evaporate even for escorted convoys — a slower, quieter closure than missiles, and harder for Washington to counter.

#StraitOfHormuz #Iran #TankerInsurance #CrudeSupply #OilGeopolitics