Maersk Slaps Emergency Fuel Surcharge as War Upends Marine Supply Chains

OilPrice · Michael Kern · last updated March 27, 2026 – 5:34 AM

The war in the Middle East has upended shipping fuel markets with prices of marine fuels skyrocketing and regions running low on supply, pushing some traders to forgo cargo and ship additional fuel volumes to key bunkering ports outside the Middle East. The price of fuel oil has surged this month as the stalled tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz is tightening supplies of the fuel in Asia, the key bunkering hub for fuel oil used in ships. The Middle East is a major global supplier of fuel oil, especially of high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO). But the…

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