Word: waterways
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...military threat would be to disrupt oil delivery. At least 20% of the world's entire oil supply passes through the narrow Strait of Hormuz that runs between Iran and the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Qatar, Kuwait and the U.A.E. ship all their oil through the waterway, while Saudi Arabia - the world's biggest producer - exports half its oil through the strait, the remainder going overland through a pipeline. Since the strait's narrowest point is just 29 nautical miles wide, sinking a couple of tankers may be for Iran a preferable option to launching direct military retaliation against...
...Even if U.S. Navy warships quickly stepped in to keep the waterway open, traders and tanker captains would be spooked, and the cost of transporting oil would rise sharply. "It is a scenario anyone who looks at security of supplies considers," says David Fyfe, head of the oil-markets division at the International Energy Agency in Paris, which represents oil-consuming industrialized countries. "It would affect up to 12 million bbl. of oil a day." (See highlights from a debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin...
Panamanians take justifiable pride in their operation of the Panama Canal. Since the U.S. handed the famous waterway over to Panama nine years ago, the independent Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has run it more efficiently, more safely and more profitably than the Americans did. Too bad, most Panamanians say, that their government is still best known for the kind of corruption and waste that has marred the small Central American country's reputation ever since pirates haunted the Caribbean. If they could just run the nation the way they run the canal, Panamanians believe, they could become a world-class...
...Songhua river in northeastern China doesn't have the history of the Mekong, the spirituality of the Ganges or the sheer power of the Yangtze. But in November 2005, this 1,200-mile (2,000 km) waterway made headlines when a chemical plant in the Chinese city of Jilin spilled massive amounts of the toxic chemical benzene, creating a 50-mile (80 km) noxious slick. The chemicals oozed toward the sea, and Chinese cities that drank from the Songhua were forced to cut off supplies, leaving millions to fend for themselves. As the slick passed over the border...
...sheer quantity of ships passing through its confined space - at one point the strait narrows to a mere 1.7 miles - makes spotting potential targets easy for pirates, and its route is a Hollywood-ready seascape of tropical isles and secret coves, providing ample hideaways. Earlier this decade, the waterway's piracy problem reached crisis levels. Attacks ranged from small-scale robberies by lightly armed desperados to highly organized hijackings of giant vessels by teams of professionals. According to the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce, the Strait of Malacca suffered 38 actual or attempted pirate attacks...