Welcome to the Fuel Matters Blog

The new fuel shortage in Yemen is just one of many problems causing suffering with the civil war being fought by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition backed by the West. Citizens wait in line for days at a time for an opportunity to fuel their vehicles. Not only is there a shortage for motor vehicles but the shortage is affecting hospital generators, water pumps, and transporting goods around the country that is already in mass turmoil. Because of the fuel shortage, the price of fuel on the black market has tripled.

Royal Dutch Shell has pushed the U.S. Lake Charles LNG Export Project in Louisiana back five years to 2025. According to Reuters, “the project, a 50-50 venture with U.S. midstream company Energy Transfer, envisaged converting an existing import and regasification facility in Lake Charles into a multi-train, 16.45 million tonnes per year facility. The delay takes a major U.S. export project out of the race to achieve a final investment decision in time to start operations during an anticipated supply downturn in 2023-2024.”

FedEx and Amazon have called it quits after FedEx decided this week to terminate its contract with Amazon.com for small-package ground deliveries. An article from Reuters stated, “The move by the U.S. package delivery company comes two months after it decided not to renew its contract with Amazon for U.S. cargo delivery through its plane-based express service.”

Last Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT, Tropical Storm Barrybecame the first hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season and the fourth hurricane to ever make landfall on the Louisiana coast in the month of July. The storm's initial landfall occurred when the center of circulation moved across Marsh Island, followed by its final landfall near Intracoastal City, located about 160 miles west of New Orleans.

The hurricane season for the Atlantic Region runs from June 1^st until November 30^th.The bodies of water included in the region are the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have reported that, “In total, the season produced 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes of which two were “major” (Category 3, 4 or 5). An average season has 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. The two major hurricanes last year were Florence and Michael which caused significant damage to the southeastern United States.