Belgium Seizes Shadow Fleet Vessel || Mar. 2, 2026
The Belgian government has seized a tanker of the shadow fleet. With the United States, India, and now the Europeans intervening, it is only a matter of time – months at most – before the entire fleet is shut down.
Comments (34)
Peter, get thee to Brussels and try the many GREAT Belgian beers along with their delicious steamed mussels, "French" fries and chocolate!
I have rarely disagreed with Peter on much of anything until his comment on Belgian beer. That said Í have also heard that Belgian beer sold in the US is pasteurized and much inferior to Belgian beer in Belgium, so maybe that is why he badmouths Belgian beer.
Agree. If Peter believes Belgian beer is inferior, I may need to start questioning his more thoughts on more strategic matters!
I love Chimay Blue (until I fall off the barstool.)
The beer is questionable is your least accurate statement ever…
Does Iran have the missiles necessarily to sink their Persian Gulf tankers? I think they'd prefer to do that to prevent the USN from seizing the ships, and probably wouldn't be very dismayed about the environmental damage.
Possible of course but they're desperately cash strapped and flaming their own crude seems like shooting themselves in multiple different ways. The more likely play may be for them to institute legal proceedings to sue for the value of any crude on board arguing theft, piracy and whatever else they can come up with. They'd argue that being under third party sanctions does not make it illegal for them to drill, pump and store their own minerals.
How dare you! Belgium has the best beer in the world!!
Belgian ales are very good Peter - but I guess you may drink Bud' or Coors as your preference. The step from seizing unregistered/uninsured vessels to seizing any vessel (except in time of a world war), is a very small one. Once upon a time, that was called piracy. I am not a supporter of Russia/Iran etc, but that line of legitimacy is very thin.
what do you say about bulgaria
Big elephant in the room here Peter
Belgium has no native elephant population
Iran is also going after the shadow fleet, maybe not on purpose. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hifY1XO5ggE
Another Suchomimus fan here!
Yo Peter, I'm an American who lived in Belgium for a number of years back in the day, and I can tell you they have some of the best food anywhere in the world. It does not make me happy to say this but their food is far better than ours. I'm not really a beer drinker but Belgium is widely known to be a beer capital as well. My suggestion is that you should visit Belgium some time and check out the cuisine, worth the trip.
Belgian beer is my absolute favorite in the world.
Only one argument from me - Belgian ale is good, damnit! :) (Except for Lambecs - too sweet)
Are you being sarcastic? Lambics are very sour
The beer is questionable!??? My man... we need to get you some Cantillon
Yeah, really off base with that comment. Not only Cantillon, but 3 Fonteinen, Westvleteren, St Bernardus, etc.
With billions in oil floating around in illegal tankers, when does an enterprising entrepreneur decide...you know, I like money?
Or an enterprising president with bank accounts in Dubai?
"The beer is questionable .." the one time I'll need to disagree 🤔🫣
I like lambics
"entirely new energy market on a global basis." I now want to hear what Warren Pies has to say about oil prices. If Oil spikes to over $90 per barrel ... Gas prices spike for the consumer ... Bessent knows this. That means there has to be a plan. Because Gas prices affect everything (inflation). U.S. Inflation + upcoming U.S Nov. Mid-Terms = highly unfavourable volatility for the Incumbent. Scott Bessent knows this. Something is not adding up. There has to be contingency plans.
I think the Trump administration has given up on the midterms. They’re just going to profit off of the market manipulation that they already have been doing and we know that Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer will bitch and moan but won’t take any action because at the end of the day and they serve Wall Street too
Oh wow - they only have like 60 km of coast line! well done!
I am interested in the second-order effects. Russia needs the money, China needs the oil, Trump needs low gas prices. So who does what to replace what the shadow fleet is supplying? Maybe America realizes the old world order was better than this chaos.
China is the primary market for all this oil. A western sanction on oil exports to China hurts their war fighting ambitions (Taiwan) and limits demand which theoretically suppresses oil prices.
Idk are sanctions worth it? They are mostly impossible to practically remove, they create global scale illicit operations like this and as of 2026, we seem to just end up bombing/kidnapping the leader of/facilitate a foreign war against/harbor terrorists that end up assaulting countries we sanction. If I remember Woodrow’s idea right, sanctions were supposed to prevent war, not make new definitions of it.
What's wrong with Belgian beer?
0:05 ... 😄 Belgium is ... uhBig-Boy-Player ...???... now? ... 😏 ... Not just a land mass divided between French and Dutch speaking communities that hate each other ... and ... throw-in a couple of pretty-good Techno Dj's ... .. What gives?
Can you do a follow up that covers “x months from now, when/if there is no longer a functioning shadow fleet, what does the world look like?” Thanks Peter
Belgian chocolate is pretty good 🍫... Provided the Belgian chocolate box can still be imported from China when the oil runs out there. Mmm chocolate.