Saudi Aramco resumed oil loading at Ras Tanura after a brief pause. The timing is perfect. A Taiwanese ship just got hit by an unknown object in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. Nothing says "everything is fine" like cranking up the tankers while debris is still floating in the chokepoint.
The ship belonged to Evergreen Marine. You remember them. The company that parked sideways in the Suez Canal and turned global supply chains into a punchline for two weeks. Now they're collecting battle damage in the Strait of Hormuz like it's a loyalty program. Five more incidents and they get a free tote bag.
Aramco looked at a vessel taking damage in the most strategically vital waterway on Earth and decided the appropriate response was business as usual. Load the tankers. Ship the crude. Pretend the floating wreckage is just part of the scenery. This is the energy equivalent of a restaurant staying open after a grease fire because the dining room smells fine.
Retail traders are now refreshing their oil ETF positions and doing frantic Google searches for "what is Strait of Hormuz" and "should I buy calls on geopolitical risk." They will lose money. Not because the situation is stable. Not because it is unstable. But because they are trading the news like it is a game show and the buzzer just went off.
An unknown object hit a ship. The Saudis kept loading oil. The headline writers called it a boost to supply. The technical chart does not care that Evergreen Marine is operating in a maritime demolition derby. Price is price. The 50-day moving average did not flinch when the hull did.
Somewhere a day trader is explaining to his wife that he bought crude futures because a Taiwanese container ship got dinged near Iran and that means bullish momentum. She is filling out divorce papers in the other room.
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