(10 April 2026) Day 41 of the Strait of Hormuz closure is dawning over the Persian Gulf in the wee hours of April 11, 2026.
The world continues to lose 15 to 20 million barrels of oil per day.
The Second Signpost began March 2, unless the Strait is reopened and the world works right now to restore the oil and chemical business.
The Second Horseman
The second horseman is taking away the peace of mind from the earth’s nations bit by bit.
The nations of southeast Asia are hurting.
This news report lists the following items:
Philippines declared a national emergency since it gets 97 percent of its oil through the Strait, and is rationing gasoline.
Vietnam and Myanmar are enforcing alternate driving days for its people. Not allowed to drive a certain day? You can’t get to work that day.
Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand are running out of gasoline.
Vietnam has 20 days of gasoline since it gets 80 percent of its oil from Kuwait.
China is halting all fuel exports to the Asian nations around it.
Southeast Asian nations are selling their US dollar reserves.
Vietnam’s Hanoi airport has grounded all commercial flights. Anyone visiting Vietnam and wanting to leave will have to find another way.
This news report says that Japan and South Korea have lifted all restrictions on burning coal for electricity.
Conclusion
As long as the Strait stays closed and/or the Arab oil infrastructure is taken offline by Iranian attacks, most of the nations of the earth will suffer more deeply as time goes on. The economic problems include fuel shortages, loss of the US Petrodollar, and later this year, famine. The nations of southeast Asia seem to be suffering the most, first.
Stay awake and keep watch.
Categories: In The News, Signpost #2: Iran, USA in the End Times, World in the End Times
THE FOUR SIGNPOSTS 
The New York Times writes that oil prices are higher than all media report.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/business/energy-environment/iran-oil-prices.html
What is reported everywhere is nearly always the “Futures price”, which is only an estimate by oil traders of what they expect the price of oil will be in a few months time.
If you really buy physical oil you pay today’s price: the “Spot price”.
It usually is close to the futures price, so the difference usually does not matter much in the big picture.
But halfway March the two prices started to diverge, and the difference is growing.
It now dwarfs any differences there were in the past 20 years.
Oil executives and analysts say futures prices no longer accurately reflect the extent of the supply shock that the world is experiencing.
Even energy analysts do not understand why the gap is so large this time.
Just before the cease-fire, a commonly cited price of Brent oil, the European one, was about $109 a barrel.
But in the market where energy companies buy and sell liquid oil transported on ships, the price was almost $145 a barrel!
The article has a nice graph to show what is happening:
That real oil prices are worse than what most people believe, has the same feel as the belief that the USA exports more oil than it imports.
The latter is only true for liquid oil products and gaseous oil products taken together. The USA imports more liquid oil products than it exports. And the liquids are what cars, trucks and planes need.
Also, the strait of Hormuz will remain closed for the most part for a very long time because:
– Iran does not know where the mines are they put in the strait.
– Iran has no mine sweepers any more; all destroyed by USA and Israel.
– The USA has no real mine sweepers any more.
– Only Europe still has some (still in Europe, not near Hormuz) and has offered them to the USA, but only if the cease fire holds. Mine sweepers are easy targets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/politics/iran-mines-strait.html
Finally, for the first time I heard European journalists say on the radio that it would be a good thing if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, for that would create a power balance preventing the USA and Israel going to war, so no disruption of the oil and gas output from the Gulf region again… This stunned me. Seems they would welcome the Ram making itself great…