Cyclone Gonu Sweeps Oman, Disrupts Oil, Shipping
June 6th, 2007Just a reminder to keep an eye on this because the mainstream media is making a point of playing it down.
As it stands now, the Persian Gulf is essentially closed to transport shipping for the next 48 hours. That’s a big deal.
Damage to critical energy infrastructure? Unknown.
Via: Reuters:
Cyclone Gonu pummeled Oman on Wednesday, halting oil and gas exports for a second day and forcing thousands to flee the coast, but weakened as it moved through the Arabian Sea, a major route for Gulf oil shipments.
…
Cyclone Gonu disrupted shipping, pushing oil prices toward $71 a barrel on Wednesday, their highest in nearly two weeks.
An Oman-based shipper said Mina al Fahal, the only export outlet for the country’s 650,000 barrels per day of crude oil, remained shut for the second day on Wednesday as did the Sur terminal, which handles 10 million tonnes per year of liquefied natural gas exports.
“Everything is shut down. The terminals will be shut at least until tomorrow,” the shipper told Reuters. “At around 4 p.m. (1200 GMT) it will get very severe in Muscat.”
Lieutenant Commander Marn Balolong, meteorologist and oceanographer on the USS Nimitz, which is in the Gulf, said it would be unsafe for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the next 48 hours but predicted that they would probably speed up after that to get back on schedule.
“… but predicted that they would probably speed up after that to get back on schedule…”
ULCC tankers can’t just speed up like a nuclear powered warship mate, once they get to full sea speed that’s it, container ships can speed up a small amount but not tankers as they’re designed to operate economically not quickly.
Yeah, this thing actually hit a Category 5. The Oil Drum has done an outstanding job covering this while MSM is missing-in-action as usual. The three blog strings dedicated to Gonu (so far) are loaded with useful information. I highly recommend reading through them; great coverage. Even the dissenting comments are amusing; chastising TODs super rational cogitators as alarmist for considering this thing serious.
I am deeply pessimsitic on future oil production and expect the world to be down to 55 mbpd by 2020 as per Ali Samsam Bakhtiari. But this temporary weather event is not significant and the excitment about it on TOD is misplaced. Perhaps what we are seeing is a the human animal’s hardwired genetic tendency to get excited about current events, no matter how insignificant, but discount serious problems which unfold over longer timescales.
Oil futures up today – the reporter on NPR just read the script. No explanation. Sheesh. Read about the storm on an info stream I read each day – the rest of media is silent. I’m adding Oil Drum to my favorites. Awesome reporting.