Britain is dangerously exposed to the whims of despots – New Statesman
“We have (at the time of writing) only experienced a slight whiff of the inflation such escalation could produce. Shipping rates on oil from the Middle East to China more than doubled from Israel’s attack on Iran on 13 June to Iran’s attack on Qatar ten days later. Liquefied natural gas can be highly explosive, so it seems reasonable to pay someone a bit extra to drive millions of cubic feet of it along a coastline bristling with weapons. .
(Sadly, that’s not what happened; the higher rates will be pocketed by shipowners and insurers, not sailors, because risking one’s capital is usually compensated more generously than risking one’s life.) Overall, these higher shipping rates added about $1.40 to a barrel of oil, according to Bloomberg. [emphasis added]