Yesterday’s reported attacks on tankers near the Straits of Hormuz sent blood pressure up on the Nymex and similar places, even as neither lives nor oil were lost. This almost undoubtedly reflects the kind of asymmetric attack I suggested as retaliation by Iran against the U.S. and its allies (Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E.) and represents an alarming escalation of the conflict. This is hardly a new experience: the 1980s saw a lengthy ‘tanker war’ as a subset of the Iran-Iraq War, with attacks on oil tankers by both sides, as they sought to deny each other access to world oil markets. What is not remembered is that the ... (full story)