The main Southwest Passage into the New Orleans port remains open, though the three-day trajectory of the oil slick provided by NOAA suggests the waters around the passage could become tainted.

FORBES: The Gulf Spill: Now What?

Just such an event seems to have occurred in May, with the passage of a bill to halt deliveries of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

FORBES: Strategic Oil Move

This seems to be a reaction to Iran's threats to retaliate against any attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the passage for roughly 40% of the world's traded oil, and striking at neighbouring countries.

ECONOMIST: Be very afraid, please

Two weeks later, it was announced that the fabled Northwest Passage was navigable for the first time in recorded history, facilitating the new oil frontier.

CNN: The price of our oil addiction

Conversely, the ransoms mean higher insurance premiums for the rattled shipping industry, delays for customers as more ships choose the longer passage around the Cape of Good Hope, lower revenues for the Suez Canal, and for the oil markets yet another variable to work into already volatile prices.

ECONOMIST: Somalia

Mainstream Islamists, such as the economy minister, Abdullah Shamia, speak not of imposing Islamic law but of respecting contracts with foreign oil companies, diversifying the economy away from oil dependence, wooing investment, and regulating the labour market to block a new influx of migrant workers seeking passage to Europe.

ECONOMIST: Libya

Crude oil prices traded sharply higher Wednesday on the better risk appetite in the market place, due to the Greek parliament passage of the austerity measures, and following a bullish weekly DOE liquid energy storage report.

FORBES: Comex Gold, Silver End Higher amid Lower U.S. Dollar Index, Sharply Higher Crude Oil, and on Safe-Haven Demand