#WSJ #news #video saying #The-Line (and the rest of Neom) has failed in #Saudi Arabia “over the last nine months or so”. Lots of talking-head filler. “Construction on all the major projects has stopped or is winding down.” But Yasir al-Rumayyan says that nothing has been canceled, just reprioritized, because it’s not “necessary” to deliver The Line by 02030. The golf courses in Sindalah have turned brown. The US$500B initial budget (up to 02080) has ballooned to US$8.8T. So they’re focused on "Oxagon", the port part of Neom.
on 02026-08-25#news: the #Iran war has boosted PCB prices 40% in April alone, and copper foil prices 30% this year, because the #Saudi Jubail petrochemical complex produced a critical resin.
on 02026-05-03#video on #oil #shipping today by Sal Mercogliano. The #USA normally exports 4 million barrels a day, the Strait of Hormuz normally exports 20 million, and now only 4.5 million are making it across #Saudi, and another 4.5 million are being released from the SPR. The many tankers headed to the US now (60 VLCCs of 2 million barrels each) may not be able to fill up. The USS George W. Bush carrier strike group is going from the US (not the Mediterranean) to the Indian Ocean, not vice versa. And maybe that’s not because of the Houthis.
on 02026-04-15#news #video by Sal Mercogliano about #shipping today in the wake of #Trump’s announced blockade of #Iran. The daily report of the Joint Maritime Information Center (“part of the Combined Maritime Forces under the Fifth Fleet”) says 4 tankers have gone through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, 3 on April 11 (perhaps before the Trump blockade). There’s still 800 to 1000 ships in the Persian Gulf. Mercogliano says that right about now is when the tankers from the first of March would have reached Europe, Australia, and America, so this is when the economy starts to feel the #oil shortages outside of Asia; in Asia, the replacement crude from America will arrive at half the flow rate because it takes the finite number of tankers twice as long. Russia and China block the UN Security Council resolution to open the Strait, as Russia’s export revenues surge. The #Saudi Red Sea port of Yanbu can only load 4.5 million barrels per day, even though the pipeline the Saudis just repaired can transfer 7, but even that is much less than the 20 that normally comes through the Persian Gulf.
on 02026-04-12#news on restoration of #Saudi east-west oil pipeline following attacks from #Iran
on 02026-04-12#Trump speech in #Saudi Arabia
on 02017-05-21The previously secret #911 report pages fingering Bush friend #Saudi prince Bandar bin Sultan were released in 2016. #USA #history #politics
on 02016-11-21#Saudi is getting out of the #oil business “and transitioning to being primarily an investor.”
on 02016-05-04“#Daesh said it would kill any official holding Daesh prisoners in #Saudi Arabia.” A page from FARC’s playbook.
on 02016-05-04End of the #petrodollar. #Saudi wanted to crush #Putin? #politics #energy #forex Lots of graphs and data tables on #oil prices
on 02015-08-05