Forget peak oil, peak geopolitics will wean us off the stuff |
The drone strikes on the refinery sparked an inferno that caused toxic black smoke to rise like an angry fist, a grey smudge visible from space.
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Residents reported an oily rain falling from the sky. If they weren't evacuated, they were told to stay indoors and rinse their noses, throats and eyes.
A torrent of thick sludge made its way into the sea, prompting the declaration of an environmental emergency.
This wasn't Iran or any of the neighbouring Gulf states caught up in the nine-week war launched by the US and Israel. It was Tuapse on the Black Sea which for the third time in as many weeks was struck by Ukrainian drones.
With the world's attention focused on the Middle East, the Ukrainian strikes have gone largely unremarked but their impact has been severe. And they haven't been limited to Russian refineries on the Black Sea, which is in Ukraine's backyard.
A month ago, Ukraine struck oil facilities at Premorsk and Ust-Luga in the Baltic Sea, 1000km away, through which 40 per cent of Russia's seaborne oil is exported - or 2 per cent of global oil supplies. At the time of the strikes, believed to have been delivered by remote control sports aircraft, Ukraine gloated that the smell of war had come to St Petersburg.
Kyiv's strategy is clear. It wants to limit Moscow's oil windfall triggered by the Middle East war and the temporary easing of US imposed sanctions. And who can blame them? An ugly reality of this seemingly aimless war in the Gulf is that it's helped bankroll Moscow's equally pointless invasion of Ukraine. Every US$10 spike in the price of crude is estimated to add US$1.6 billion a month to the Kremlin's coffers.
But in damaging Russia's capacity to export oil, Kyiv is also putting upward pressure on global prices and indirectly strengthening Iran's bargaining position in any future peace negotiations with the US.
It's an unholy mess, which further underlines the fragility of a world economy still so reliant on oil, despite enduring previous energy shocks.
Here in Australia, our political leaders are doing their best to assure us we have enough fuel supplies - for the moment. Every media appearance, when we're........