Idle Rambling -- Mid-Day Edition -- Saturday -- March 27, 2021

Crude oil exports / imports: the metric is fairly moot for most of us. At least it is for me.

• global oil is no long controlled by a cartel;
• the cartel still has a huge influence on the price, but it's no longer the only game in town
• with the US shale revolution, oil became a true commodity;
• interestingly enough, compared to most products traded internationally, I'm not sure to what extent tariffs play with regard to oil;
• if push came to shove, as they say, the US could manage on its own
• that cannot be said for Europe, Africa, Asia or Antarctica; not sure about South America
• refined products becoming a more important issue than imports/exports 
• very similar to raw cotton / cotton products during the British Empire
  

US crude oil imports:

• to Texas, Louisiana, Gulf coast: Canada, Mexico
• to one refinery on Gulf coast: Saudi Arabia
• to New England and northeast: Russia
• to cokers along US Gulf: Russia Mazut 100
  
• to California: Alaska, and Mideast oil

Link here. And, here.

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Suez Canal
11: 49 a.m. Central Time, Saturday, March 27, 2021

Cairo: local time -- 6:49 p.m. Saturday evening, March 27, 2021; Egyptian authorities said earlier in the week the ship would be freed by Saturday night, March 27, 2021. Inshallah.

• no sign, as of one hour ago, that the ship had been freed up
• rudder is free and moving; apparently not damaged
• bow and stern resting on sand;
• middle of the hull is sagging; divers seen no breach in the hull or any other damage;
  
• the canal is a V-shaped canal;
• sand pouring into the base of the "V" could disrupt normal traffic, or change the best route through
• the canal -- all that sand that is being "hoovered" up has to go somewhere, and I assume it's being dumped into the middle of the canal;