Strait of Hormuz on Fire: Will China Move on Taiwan Next?

The Gulf of Oman is burning—literally. Reports surfaced early this morning that three tankers are engulfed in flames near the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil chokepoint. This fiery incident, shrouded in conflicting […]

China’s dominance over rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals has become a geopolitical flashpoint, with the nation controlling roughly 60% of global mining and 85-90% of processing capacity. These materials—vital for everything from electric […]

Highlights of the Podcast 

00:00 – Intro

01:14 – How the Israel-Iran Crisis Is Swiftly Becoming Taiwan’s National Security Crisis

03:56 – Tankers Ablaze Near Strait of Hormuz: A Brewing Crisis for Global Energy Markets?

05:40 – Laden Frontline VLCC collides with shadow suezmax tanker off Khorfakkan

07:59 – China’s Death Grip on Rare Earth Minerals: Regulatory Hurdles, U.S. Processing Efforts, Trump Administration Gains, and Investor Opportunities

12:29 – Outro

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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Stuart Turley: [00:00:00] Three tankers are on fire at the Strait of Hormuz, but is China gonna take advantage of that during this time of crisis in the Middle East and take Taiwan? All that and more on the Daily Energy Newsbeat daily standup. [00:00:13][13.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:00:21] Hello everybody, welcome to the Energy Newsbeat Daily Standup. My name is Stu Turley, President of the Sandstone Group. We’ve got a buckled up show for you here. This is on June 18th, how the Israel-Iran crisis is swiftly becoming Taiwan’s national security crisis. Tankers ablaze near the Strait of Hormuz, brewing crisis for a global energy market. Layden Frontline VLCC collides with Shadow Suezmec Tanker off of… That’s about the same story as the other one but there’s some other details in there and that’s why I want to highlight that story. China’s death grip on rare earth minerals, regulatory hurdles, US processing efforts, Trump’s administration gains, and investor opportunities. Big stories here,. [00:01:14][52.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:14] So let’s get started. How the Israel-Iran crisis is swiftly becoming a Taiwan national security crisis. This is huge. You heard Michael and I talk about the Strait of Hormuz, a global energy lifeline, it’s the narrow waterway between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates is on the world’s most critical oil transit choke point. According to the U S energy information administration, the EIA, approximately 20.9 million barrels per day of oil and products representing 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption passed through the straight in 2023, additionally about 20% of the LNG trade goes through there. That is huge. Now, why is this important to Taiwan? And the story points that out Taiwan, which is nearly All of its energy is imported. They have very little energy. Manufacturing is very like open season on this because over 40% of its crude oil imports and significant portion of its LNG primary from cutter pass through the straight, but here’s where this story gets dicey at a world at war post on X China is preparing for an invasion of Taiwan. It’s a pretty big allegation, but they keep going into some more here. The U S will soon be involved in the conflict against Iran. China will see this as a major provocation. Why? And they go into what we’ve talked about. And that is China is Iran’s biggest oil client with the country’s private refiners, firing, buying most of Iran’s sanction feud crude. So this is huge. If the U S or Iran’s stop the crude, China’s going to get grumpy and they’re going to possibly act on Taiwan. So this. Is actually a huge issue for president Trump. And I have no doubt that they’re going to be able to negotiate this through this. But global and regional implications, underscore Z, interconnect us of global energy markets and geopolitical flashpoints for Taiwan. The immediate risk of an energy supply crunch, but the longer term threat lies in China’s potential to capitalize on regional instability. And with the U S Nimitz coming from the Asia market over to this side of the pond, you’re going to have some issues going on. So it was a pretty interesting story. I’ve got two tanker stories. [00:03:56][161.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:56] Speaking of the straight of hormones, they’re brewing crisis for total global energy markets. This is critical from a couple of different stories and hustle bitch on at hustle, bitch on X posted out tanker reps and flames off the UAE coast right next to the world’s oil world’s oil lifeline. Which is the Strait of Hormuz. The Adolin just went up in flames after colliding with the front eagle in the Gulf of Oman, only 22 miles from Khor Fakan, dangerously close to the strait. And when you sit back, this is very important. This article, I went ahead and also put in from geography host. How important is the straight of hormones? It’s easy when you just click on the story and take a look and you can see. How it impacts and where it is. Energy stocks are up and as I’m recording this on at 503 the day before, the oil was at $77.06. It was up $3.83 today and $75.49 for WTI. So when we sit back and take a look, the market is understanding that, hey, as long as… Iran is not bombed totally out in there. That price is going to hold for a little while. As soon as Israel goes nuts and starts bombing the Iranian supply, which is about 3 million barrels a day, that’s going to get China grumpy, which is going then cause some other issues. So we’re in a very fluid, holy cow, Batman moment right now. [00:05:39][102.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:40] This next story laden frontline VLCC collides with shadow Suexmex tanker off of the Khorfaken area and I apologize for our podcast listeners in case I mispronounced that. I’m not trying to be rude. So a collision occurred 1 14 a.m. Dubai time the night before. But here’s where Keith point of this is the spokesperson for frontline. They said the following and media was action was taken to extinguish a fire on the front Eagle. A full investigation will be carried out, carried out to determine the cause of it, but their transponders were turned off because they were sanctioned vehicles coming out from. Iran. So when you’re talking about G G spoofing, doping, and a zombie ship, you’re talking about the dark fleet and the dark flea. This was not a bombing or a terrorist attack. This was a choke point with transponders turned off because of sanctions, but still a very, very important thing, part of the dark fleet. There’s about 1400 different tankers in the dark fleet, I believe Russia’s dark fleet is about 683, somewhere around in that number. Iran has X number, I believe it’s around 200, somewhere out in there, but they change hands. Some of them like change the flag or they’ll do this. So those are ballpark numbers and very fluid. [00:07:18][98.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:19] Let’s go to this last story here. Before I go to my last story though, I want to give Steve Reese a shout out. If you are in the oil and gas space, and if you are wanting to move molecules from the Hanesville to Germany, Steve Reese, Reese energy consulting.com is where you want to go to. They know how to a source natural gas for a data center. They know, how to move, molecules, they know how to do auditing. And make sure that you get all of the money that you need. We also have another sponsor coming on. We’ll fill you in on that as we start getting some ads rolling and things. It’s pretty cool. A news around here. [00:07:58][39.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:59] Let’s go to this last story here. China’s death grip on rare earth minerals, regulatory hurdles, and the U S processing efforts, Trump administration gains investment opportunities. There’s a lot in this story going on. And it’s you’ve heard Michael and I talk about a stranglehold in the West, a real problem around renewable, not necessarily renewable energy, but just rare earth minerals and critical minerals. There’s two different things, but they’re almost interchangeable with some of them. China has 70% of its rare earth imports and domestic processing is virtually non-existent. The U S relies on China for 70% of our rare earth imports and domestic processing is virtually non existent. Gallium is the only one that’s coming online to be able to produce, I believe 50% of what we need. That’s one out of all of the different minerals that we need The article outlines out regulatory hurdles in the United States, permitting delays, environmental concern, lack of expertise, rut row, economic viability, thin profit margins, and China’s ability to suppress global prices deter investment. I think that this is critical and the way things are changing and we’re seeing that the Trump forers actually did not turn out to be a bad thing. And president Trump and, and Scott Besson actually did a phenomenal job in getting it to this point hats off to the Trump team on doing that. So I would take a look as an investor at the markets and I’ve got some other investor CEOs that I’ve lined up coming up to talk about rare earth minerals investing in, in a rare earth and also in other commodities. When we take a look at the administration gains, the trail deal with China in June announced a tentative agreement to resume the talks executive order 14 to 41. This is streamlined permitting for domestic minerals and projects. So they’re on it. It invoked the defense production act, the DPA to fund mining, fund mining and processes that is huge. Getting us tariff exemptions on this, I have to hand it to the entire energy team, Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, and Lee Zeldin for really supporting president Trump through this thing. We take a look at the death grip on rare earth minerals, expose the West’s problems and closing the gap. We’ll take years to try to get this thing solved out. We don’t have years. We got a year at the most. So, but sit back and take a look at your portfolio and gold may not be the only one for you to break apart and take at your portfolio. Take a look at your portfolio. And so do I want some higher gains? Look at geranium mining or any of those other kinds of mines and say, wait a minute, this is important for this kind of sector. This is a defense need. And this is a huge issue and a lot of money can be made when you pick apart your portfolio in pick and choose in the rare earth minerals and production. Make sure you check the management of those companies, check their performance very much like the Exxon mobile CEO at Darren Woods. When he was on with Brett bear, I put that article out on sub stack. Yesterday, this morning, yes, so it’d be yesterday, he did an outstanding job. And as an investor looking at ExxonMobil, not only would I look at their buyback program or their fees back or their stock, whether or not it’s a day trade or it’s however you want to look at it, but the CEO is very critical when making a determination and hats off was to Darren Woods at ExxonMobil that was in. An outstanding interview with Brett Baird that’s on the energy newsbeat.co.substack.com. Go out there and check out that article. [00:12:28][269.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:29] So with that, like, subscribe, share this, read this to your pets. If you want to really bore your spouse, just read this year, a spouse and have a great evening. Talk to you also. [00:12:29][0.0][738.2]