Yesterday I did one of the coolest things I’ve done in a long time. I joined a @Gulf_intel delegation on a port tour of Fujairah, where we went out as far as the SPMs to see a VLCC loading crude delivered via pipeline. (I’ve blurred out identifying features of the ship for safety reasons). Normally I'd see the ship on the @Windwardai platform this way (see other photo) This image of the VLCC is at the very epicentre of resilience. Fujairah has emerged as THE critical supplier – and saviour -- of oil to the global market. As well as taking on crude delivered via pipeline from the port’s four SPMs, tankers are shuttling from oil terminals west of Hormuz to offshore Fujairah and undertaking ship-to-ship transfers on to other ships that don’t want to do this perilous and increasingly expensive voyage. I leave Fujairah full of admiration for those innovative strategies that keep oil flowing. The UAE was the first to embrace the US military-supported southern corridor in May, showing other Gulf state national oil companies there was a way out of the strait. It's no surprise that UAE 3Q crude export volumes are back to normal as a result. Those 'dark, dark' transits have scaled up amid extreme provocation from Iran. Dark refers to AIS off, the second ‘dark’ part is that these transits happen at night outside satellite capture & even involve seafarers switching off their phones. That strategy (to shuttle tankers ‘dark, dark’ through Hormuz for STS off Fujairah, also with AIS off in many cases) has now extended to areas off Oman, and kept countries in Asia supplied with oil, provided a ceiling on prices and saved the world from a huge inflation shock. This was all achieved from right here. The VLCCs doing the STS further out from the SPMs were just visible on the horizon. Less than 12 hours after this port tour was concluded there were reports that a tanker had been struck in this STS area, the second such attack outside Hormuz in 24 hours. These latest attacks extend and accelerate risk at GCC ports and anchorage areas where tankers are loading oil and gas for coordinated transits through the southern corridor. There have been 16 attacks reported on ships in the Middle East Gulf in the past 10 days as Iran seeks to reassert leverage and control amid reports that oil flows through the strait are around three-quarters of levels seen pre-conflict. Maritime security is now at its most perilous since the early days of the conflict lifting freight costs to unprecedented levels and driving steep discounts on oil prices offered by national oil companies in order to secure sales. We peppered the captain with questions about the STS activities; he discreetly deflected. He did say the port had never been busier. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to visit & see for myself where oil market resilience really is