Washington: $20 billion maritime reinsurance facility
The Trump administration on Friday unveiled a $20 billion maritime reinsurance facility aimed at restoring confidence in commercial shipping through the Persian Gulf, moving to operationalize a federal insurance backstop proposed earlier this week as missile and drone attacks and insurance withdrawals triggered a collapse in vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
The plan, announced by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation in coordination with the United States Department of the Treasury, would provide reinsurance coverage—including war risk—for vessels operating in the Gulf region during the escalating conflict with Iran.
According to officials, the facility will insure losses of up to approximately $20 billion on a rolling basis and will initially focus on coverage for hull and machinery as well as cargo.
The initiative follows a directive earlier this week from Donald Trump ordering the government to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade transiting the Gulf after insurers rapidly pulled back from the region amid a surge in missile and drone attacks targeting commercial vessels.
In a statement announcing the plan, DFC Chief Executive Officer Ben Black said the program is designed to help restore the flow of global energy shipments through one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints.
Tokyo prepared to release oil reserve
A senior Japanese parliament member said on Sunday that the government instructed a national oil reserve storage site to prepare for a possible release of crude, as the Iran crisis has cut supply from the Middle East.
Japan relies on the Middle East for around 95 percent of its crude supplies, with roughly 70 percent shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which ?has been effectively closed following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Akira Nagatsuma, a member of the Centrist Reform Alliance opposition party, told Reuters that an official from the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) at the Shibushi national oil storage base said it had received the directive from the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) on Friday.
Details such as the timing of the release remain unclear, Nagatsuma said.
It was not immediately clear if any other storage bases received the same instruction.
An official at ANRE, under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), declined to comment. The Shibushi base was not immediately available for comment, while JOGMEC could not be reached outside office hours.
The Shibushi site in southern Japan is one of the locations where the country’s strategic oil stocks are stored.
Crude oil spill draws large response
Cleanup operations are continuing in the Gulf of Mexico near Grand Isle, Louisiana, after a crude oil spill linked to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) prompted a large-scale response led by federal and state authorities.
A Unified Command consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office (LOSCO), and LOOP has been coordinating the response since February 27 following the discovery of crude oil near the offshore facility the previous day.
According to the latest update released March 7, officials now estimate that approximately 31,500 gallons (about 750 barrels) of crude oil were discharged following an offshore mechanical failure at the LOOP facility on February 26. The source of the leak has since been secured, and response teams have already recovered an estimated 27,888 gallons (664 barrels) of oil from the water.
USA defends waiver on Russian oil sanctions
Trump administration officials on Sunday defended a decision to temporarily lift some sanctions on Russianoil and predicted that a sharp increase in gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war would last only weeks.
Appearing on multiple TV talk shows, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said a waiver issued last week to allow Indian purchases of Russian oil would alleviate pressure on the global market.
“It’s a 30-day pause to allow, which is just kind of common sense, to allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries,” Waltz said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the waiver can help “tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace.”
With the war now in its second week and no end in sight, Americans are grappling with higher prices at the pump, a new complicating factor for the U.S. economy, which unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in February.
Iran picks latestleader as escalating war deepens oil shock
Iran picked a new supreme leader and kept up attacks on the ninth day of the war in the Middle East, hitting a water plant in Bahrain, while Israel struck fuel depots in Tehran and threatened the Islamic Republic’s power grid.
The attacks overnight into Sunday came as Arab states across the Persian Gulf continued to face incoming missiles and drones from Iran, which said it had the capacity to sustain the war for months. The Red Crescent warned of toxic acid rain following the Israeli strikes. Tehran didn’t disclose the identity of the new leader.
President Donald Trump said the US will consider widening its strikes on the Islamic Republic in a conflict that’s upended energy markets and caused mass flight disruptions.
The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said they intercepted Iranian attacks overnight. The UAE and Kuwait began reducing oil production amid the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s energy exports transit.
A water desalination plant in Bahrain sustained material damage following an Iranian drone attack, the country’s government said, adding that there was no impact on water supplies.