Dron hits chemical tanker in the Indian ocean, Iran blamed

The global shipping market is certainly top of mind as we celebrate a holiday weekend. Yemen continues to threaten the Red Sea but now there are worries about a wider threat to shipping. Iran said it could shut down the Gibraltar Strait, which is something that most people doubt. At the same time, the latest attack defies belief.

“The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT) yesterday in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” a Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters.

Either Iran had some very bad intel, the Pentagon is playing games or Iran is playing an incredibly stupid game.

In any case, the stakes for global shipping and the oil market continue to rise. I’ll be interested to see how crude trades in the next few days.