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When the fuel surcharge line appeared in her Amazon seller dashboard in early April, a third-party FBA merchant in Phoenix had no way to know it traced back to a diesel unit explosion in Port Arthur, Texas, and a Lloyd’s underwriter’s decision in London three weeks earlier. She sells kitchen accessories. Her margins are 14%. The new 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge Amazon applied to all Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) orders — “until further notice” — doesn’t care what she sells. It cares what diesel costs. And diesel, right now, costs more than her business model can absorb. ...

The Cancellation Clause That Closed a Strait A chartering coordinator at a Rotterdam refinery used to verify two things before scheduling a tanker discharge: insurance certificate and estimated arrival. Since late March 2026, she checks a third — proof the vessel paid Iran’s Larak Island inspection fee. Without it, the war-risk policy may be void, and an uninsured VLCC carrying $200 million in crude cannot dock. This coordinator is a composite — no single named source — but the workflow she represents is now standard at major European discharge terminals. ...

Iran Built a Velvet Rope Around 21% of Global Oil Pertamina, Indonesia’s state energy company, has confirmed that two of its tankers have been sitting motionless in the Persian Gulf for over three weeks. The cargo is paid for. The vessels are seaworthy. But no insurer will cover the transit, and no IRGC escort approval has come through. The oil Indonesia already bought is stranded roughly 40 nautical miles from open water. ...