The Evergreen Marine Corp.-operated ultra-large container vessel Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal yesterday during a sandstorm, closing the vital shipping route. It remains stuck in the canal today. Eight tugboats are working to float it. The vessel, one of the largest container ships in the world, was en route to Rotterdam from China.
Oil prices rose due to the temporary disruption of tanker traffic, halting a two-week decline. As of this morning there were seven laden tankers carrying a total of 6.3 million bbl of oil waiting to enter the canal, two northbound and five southbound. Commodities intelligence firm Kpler estimates that if Ever Given remains grounded through the end of the week three more tankers will join this queue, adding 2.5 million bbl of oil.
These are small volumes. Daily global production currently totals roughly 75 million bbl. About 10% of the world’s crude shipments travel through the Suez, so a prolonged closure would be problematic. But this unlikely and a more salient contributing cause for the higher oil prices was US gasoline consumption reaching its highest level in four months.
Despite this, be ready for Ever Given’s grounding to be used as the reason for higher prices on any number of goods and for this in turn to be cast as evidence that the United States needs to buy as little as it possibly can from other parts of the world.
Evergreen is based in Taiwan and was founded in 1968. Either Hillary Clinton took her US Secret Service name from the company or the fact that the two are the same is coincidence. There is so far no evidence that any of the containers on board are shipping babies.
For additional mirth regarding the grounding, check the Twitter thread below:
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The 3 most on-brand GOP reactions so far to the recent shootings (in the order encountered)
1. It was a false-flag operation
2. What about the border? (and whataboutism in general)
3. The Boulder shooter was Muslim (as shared by @DonaldJTrumpJr and parroted by his minions since)
Chris Smith, Author 