London oil traders have begun scoring Middle East wars out of nine, and the current one opened at three.
The mark came on Friday morning, as Brent crude climbed 3% past $100 a barrel for the first time since July. Desks at the newly formed Guild of Crude Futures Reviewers said the escalation was competently staged but offered nothing fresh.
Their assessment praised the tanker strikes for pace. It was less kind about the rest.
Threatening the Strait of Hormuz is fine, but it has been done, and done better. We have watched this shipping lane get menaced by four separate administrations. At some point you want a new idea.
The Guild reserves nine out of nine for 1973, which it calls the only entry in the series with a genuine ending. The 1990 instalment scored a six for scale. Everything since has been marked down for reusing the same three chokepoints.
