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Fixed-Rate Bonds and Notes from Phoenix Energy: Common Questions About This Alternative Investment

Fixed-Rate Bonds and Notes from Phoenix Energy

Potential investors researching alternative investments are often searching for clarity. One name popping up online in 2026 is Phoenix Energy. Online, potential investors want to know more about the company: Is Phoenix Energy legit? Is Phoenix Energy a “good” investment? What do Phoenix Energy fixed-rate bonds and notes offer and what risks should potential investors consider before committing their money?

Phoenix Energy is a U.S.-based oil and gas company that issues fixed-rate corporate bonds and notes to investors under SEC regulations

Like many investments, alternative investments carry risk, and potential investors should conduct their own due diligence before investing. The goal of this article is to give potential investors a clear, practical guide to conducting due diligence before deciding if Phoenix Energy corporate bonds and notes may be appropriate for one’s portfolio.

Frequently Asked Questions About Phoenix Energy

Who is Phoenix Energy?

Phoenix Energy (Phoenix Energy One, LLC) was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Irvine, California, with offices across the U.S. Phoenix Energy (NYSE American: PHXE.PR) is a publicly traded oil and gas company focused on acquiring and developing energy assets across the United States and is actively drilling in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana. Phoenix Energy states that it finances a significant portion of its operations and growth through corporate bond and note offerings — including Regulation D Rule 506(c) offerings and a registered offering, which, according to the offering materials, have stated annual interest rates ranging from 6% to 13%.

Phoenix develops and manages energy assets using a vertically integrated model. This includes acquiring mineral rights, participating in joint development projects, and drilling and operating its own wells.

How Does Phoenix Energy Pay Interest on Its Corporate Bonds and Notes?

A common question potential investors ask is how Phoenix Energy is able to offer fixed annual interest rates ranging from 6% to 13% on its corporate bond offerings.

Phoenix Energy is an oil and gas company whose primary business is the exploration, development, and production of crude oil. It’s worth noting that global oil demand has averaged approximately 100 million barrels per day in recent years, providing the commercial market in which the company sells its production. The company generates revenue through the sale of oil production, as well as from other energy-related operations. Like other companies that issue corporate debt, Phoenix Energy uses cash generated from its business operations to meet its financial obligations, including interest payments on its outstanding debt securities.

Oil and gas producers operate in a cyclical industry where commodity prices, production levels, and operating costs fluctuate over time. According to the company, Phoenix Energy seeks to manage these risks by focusing its operations in established producing regions, hedging a portion of its anticipated production to help reduce exposure to short-term commodity price volatility, and managing its operations with the objective of remaining effective across a range of oil price environments. These strategies are intended to support the company’s cash flow, although no strategy can eliminate business or market risk.

According to Phoenix Energy’s publicly filed financial statements, the company’s gross revenue has grown in recent fiscal years:

  • 2023: $118.1 million
  • 2024: $281.2 million
  • 2025: $687.2 million

Historical financial results should not be viewed as predictive of future performance. Potential investors should review the company’s SEC filings, offering documents, and applicable risk factors before making any investment decision.

What are fixed-rate corporate bonds and notes?

Fixed-rate corporate bonds and notes are a type of corporate debt where an investor lends money to a company and earns interest at a rate that is set upfront and does not change over the life of the investment. The interest is calculated at the fixed rate and paid in accordance with the bond’s stated terms, such as monthly payments or compounding. Because the rate is known from day one, fixed-rate bonds and notes are often easier for investors to understand than products with fluctuating returns, though they still involve risk and depend on the company’s ability to meet its obligations.

How can potential investors evaluate whether Phoenix Energy’s offering is legitimate?

Phoenix Energy is an operating oil and gas company whose public filings are available through the SEC. Phoenix Energy raises capital through corporate bond offerings that are either (i) sold under Regulation D, Rule 506(c), or (ii) offered pursuant to an SEC-registered offering. In July 2026, the company also announced its Phoenix Flex Junior Secured Notes™ offering, a registered offering with an effective SEC registration statement.

Information about the company’s offerings may be available through SEC filings, including registration statements (for registered offerings) and notices (for Regulation D offerings), accessible via the SEC’s EDGAR database.

What corporate bonds and notes does Phoenix Energy offer?

As of July 2026, Phoenix Energy offers corporate bonds and notes with stated annual interest rates ranging from 6% to 13%.[1] These debt securities are available through:

Minimum investment amounts are $25,000 for the Regulation D bonds, $5,000 for the Registered Offering, and $1,000 for the Phoenix Flex Notes. Bond terms vary by offering and investor eligibility.

These investments do not represent direct ownership in oil and gas assets. Instead, investors lend capital to the company and, according to the company, investors have historically received monthly interest payments or compounding interest, depending on the selected option.[3]

Can I buy Phoenix Energy corporate bonds and notes through Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab or a financial brokerage account?

Phoenix Energy corporate bonds and notes are not currently available for purchase through traditional brokerage platforms because these offerings are sold directly to the public. Phoenix Energy bond offerings are detailed on their website.

Where can I read Phoenix Energy investor reviews?

Third-party review sites like Trustpilot and BBB provide reviews from posters who often identify themselves as investors.

Phoenix Energy Trustpilot Reviews

As of July 2026, on Trustpilot, Phoenix Energy One, LLC holds a rating of approximately 4.7 out of 5 stars, based on over 300 separate reviews. According to Trustpilot, these reviews are submitted by users describing their individual experiences interacting with the company in one way or another.

Phoenix Energy BBB Reviews

Phoenix Energy also maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, where it is listed as an accredited business on the platform. To obtain BBB accreditation, a business must meet eligibility requirements and undergo a review process that considers factors such as complaint history, business practices, and adherence to BBB standards. In regard to rating, according to the BBB, “The BBB rating is based on information BBB is able to obtain about the business, including complaints received from the public.” BBB seeks and uses information directly from businesses and from public data sources. The BBB platform also provides a structured process for submitting complaints by individuals and for companies to respond to such complaints. 

Reviews can offer helpful insight into investor experiences, but they are inherently subjective and may not reflect every individual outcome. For that reason, potential investors should review official SEC filings, offering materials, and guidance from a qualified financial professional when conducting due diligence.

Does Phoenix Energy pay monthly?

The company indicates that investors can choose monthly interest payments or monthly compounding interest. Historically, Phoenix Energy has made monthly interest payments in accordance with the applicable bond terms.[4] Future payments would depend on the company’s ability to satisfy its obligations and are not guaranteed. The company states that it intends to continue building a business capable of supporting investor obligations.

How can I attend a Phoenix Energy webinar?

Phoenix Energy states that it hosts daily free webinars where prospective investors can hear directly from executives, learn about the business model, and ask questions in real time.

To learn more, visit the official Phoenix Energy website or register for an upcoming Phoenix Energy webinar.

What risks should I consider before investing in Phoenix Energy?

Investing in alternative investments involves risks, including but not limited to:

  • Private corporate bond and note risks – Phoenix Energy’s Regulation D Rule 506(c) Offering and Registered Offering consist of corporate bonds. Phoenix Flex Notes are junior secured notes. The terms, rights, and risk characteristics of each offering are described in the applicable offering materials. Depending on the offering, these securities may be unsecured or junior secured, may have limited liquidity, and involve credit risk, meaning investors rely on the Company’s ability to meet its obligations.
  • Limited liquidity – Investors should be prepared to hold Phoenix Energy securities for the applicable investment term. Redemption, transfer, and liquidity rights vary by offering and are described in the applicable offering materials.

Investment involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

What is due diligence?

Due diligence is the process of doing your homework before making an investment decision. That includes reading the fine print, asking questions, and making sure you understand how the company operates and how your money would be used.

For investors considering Phoenix Energy’s corporate bonds and notes, due diligence means going beyond headlines and reviews. It means looking at the full picture, including the company’s business model, track record, official filings, and its engagement with the public.

What should I look at when evaluating a company like Phoenix Energy?

Here are a few practical ways to perform due diligence:

  • Review the offering documents. These outline key terms, risks, and eligibility requirements. You can access these through Phoenix Energy’s website or at gov.
  • Attend a webinar. Phoenix Energy hosts daily webinars where investors can hear directly from executives and ask live questions.
  • Review the company’s quarterly and annual reports and other filings made with the SEC.
  • Reach out with questions. The company’s Investor Relations team is available by phone or email to walk you through the offering or answer anything you’re unsure about.
  • Talk to a financial advisor. A licensed advisor can help you determine if this type of fixed-income investment makes sense for your financial goals.

What are the Final Considerations on Investing with Phoenix Energy?

No single source—including online reviews, company materials, or third-party commentary—should be the sole basis for an investment decision. Reviewing offering documents, SEC filings, asking questions directly to the company, and consulting a qualified financial advisor can help potential investors make a more informed decision about whether Phoenix Energy’s corporate bonds and notes are appropriate for their financial objectives and risk tolerance. 

Disclaimer: Not an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. Securities offered through Crescent Securities Group, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC, pursuant to a registration statement and prospectus or private placement memorandum, as applicable, and only where lawful. Investors must meet suitability requirements. For a complete discussion of risks, you should carefully review the registration statement and prospectus or private placement memorandum for the applicable offering prior to making any decision to invest. These documents may be obtained at phxoffering.com. An investment involves risk, including possible loss of principal and may be illiquid or unsecured. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

The third-party review platforms referenced in this article are operated independently of Phoenix Energy. Testimonials reflect the experiences of individual reviewers and may not be representative of the experiences of other investors. Phoenix Energy did not provide cash or non-cash compensation in exchange for the testimonials referenced herein.

This article contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Phoenix Energy’s business strategy, operations, and future intentions. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Investors should review the company’s SEC filings and offering documents, including the applicable risk factors, for additional information. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

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[1] Interest rates and payment options vary by offering, term, investor eligibility, and applicable offering documents. See the applicable prospectus or private placement memorandum for current rates, terms, risks, and eligibility requirements.
[2] Registered offerings will be subject to certain criteria, including objective financial suitability standards specific to each offerings and amount invested (see prospectus). Private placement offerings open to “accredited investors” only. Accredited investors as defined in Rule 501 of Regulation D includes individuals with a net worth over $1 million (excluding primary residence) or income over $200,000 (individual) or $300,000 (household) in each of the prior two years, with a reasonable expectation of the same in the current year. Learn more about accreditation requirements.
[3] Stated annual interest rates and payment options are offered only under applicable offering documents and are subject to the terms, conditions, eligibility requirements, and risks described in the applicable prospectus or private placement memorandum. Not all offerings are available to all investors.
[4] According to Phoenix Energy, since first issuing its corporate bonds in 2021, it has made scheduled interest payments and returned principal at maturity or redemption in accordance with the applicable bond terms. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

America Needs A Smarter Work From Home Policy

work from home woman in america

By Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

America needs a smarter work from home policy, and Britain’s House of Lords has offered the right starting point: stop treating remote work as either a perk to protect or a problem to eliminate. The real question is what arrangement helps public servants do the work well, serve the public effectively, and stay in jobs that government increasingly struggles to fill.

A serious state telework policy should be transparent, auditable, and tied to public-service results.

The UK report’s strongest lesson is its refusal to embrace a universal rule. Home-based and hybrid work can improve recruitment, retention, disability inclusion, caregiving support, and regional opportunity. It can also weaken mentoring, collaboration, onboarding, and workplace culture when managers fail to design it carefully. That balanced view is exactly what U.S. federal and state governments need now.

Washington has moved toward broad return-to-office requirements. President Trump’s 2025 return to in-person work memorandum directed federal agencies to end many remote-work arrangements and bring employees back to their duty stations full time, with exceptions. Several states have followed the same path. Ohio ordered many state employees back to offices through an executive order on state employees, while California set a default expectation of four in-office days per week for many state workers through its return to office order.

Some in-person work is essential. Government needs secure collaboration, public-facing services, emergency response, mentoring, and institutional culture. But government office mandates should not pretend that physical presence automatically equals accountability. The better standard is performance: case backlogs, response times, service quality, staff retention, recruitment speed, employee engagement, office utilization, and citizen satisfaction.

The UK report also makes clear that remote work is not just a convenience issue. It is a labor-force issue. A National Bureau of Economic Research paper on disability employment found that increased working from home explained a substantial share of the post-pandemic rise in full-time employment among people with physical disabilities. That should matter to every governor and agency head trying to fill public-sector vacancies. Remote and hybrid options can help government compete for talent, retain experienced workers, and expand access for people who face commuting, health, caregiving, or geographic barriers.

The United States should not simply copy Britain’s approach. It should improve on it. Federal agencies and state governments should classify roles by function: site-required, hybrid-eligible, or remote-eligible. They should require managers to justify why location matters for specific tasks, not rely on blanket assumptions. They should train supervisors to manage hybrid teams, onboard new hires, coordinate anchor days, protect boundaries, and measure outcomes. A serious state telework policy should be transparent, auditable, and tied to public-service results.

The governments that learn to tell the difference will serve citizens better than those that confuse office attendance with productivity.

The U.S. also needs better remote work data. Agencies should track what hybrid work does to productivity, equity, disability accommodations, real estate costs, cybersecurity, turnover, and service delivery. States must also address complications Britain does not face in the same way, especially interstate taxation, payroll, workers’ compensation, and licensing. The National Conference of State Legislatures has warned that remote work can create complex state and local tax issues when employees work across borders.

The lesson from Britain is not that everyone should work from home. It is that serious governments should stop governing by slogan. The next stage of remote work reform should be evidence-based, role-specific, and focused on public value. Presence matters when the work demands it. Flexibility matters when it improves hiring, retention, inclusion, and performance. The governments that learn to tell the difference will serve citizens better than those that confuse office attendance with productivity.

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About the Author

Dr. Gleb TsipurskyDr. Gleb Tsipursky was named “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times for helping leaders overcome frustrations with Generative AI. He serves as the CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote seven best-selling books, and his two most recent ones are Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams and ChatGPT for Leaders and Content Creators: Unlocking the Potential of Generative AI. His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, Time, Business Insider, Fortune, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His writing was translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Korean, French, Vietnamese, German, and other languages. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, with 8 years as a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill and 7 years as a professor at Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio.

 

U.S. and China to Hold First AI Talks Under Trump Administration

The United States and China are expected to hold official talks on artificial intelligence in September, according to Reuters sources, marking the first AI dialogue between the two countries under President Donald Trump. The discussions, which are still being finalized, are expected to take place before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the U.S. later that month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to lead the U.S. delegation.

The talks will focus on the growing risks and challenges surrounding advanced AI, including military applications, cybersecurity, and the development of powerful frontier models. The U.S. has already tightened export restrictions on advanced AI chips to China, while both countries are considering measures to regulate the use and distribution of increasingly capable AI systems.

Analysts say China is seeking practical, technical discussions rather than political negotiations. While no major agreements are expected from the first meeting, both sides are likely to establish common definitions and discuss basic AI governance as they navigate an increasingly competitive global AI race.

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AI Policy is Losing the Race

AI policy

By Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology waiting for its moment. It has arrived, scaled, and embedded itself in daily work faster than most governments, schools, and companies seem able to process. Stanford’s 2026 AI Index captures the central fact of the new era: AI capability is still accelerating, adoption is spreading at historic speed, and the systems, institutions, and policy meant to manage the fallout are lagging badly. That mismatch, more than any new model release, is the story that matters.

The numbers no longer support the fantasy that AI is still in an experimental phase. Stanford’s latest report shows generative AI reaching mass adoption with unusual speed, while McKinsey’s 2025 global survey finds that companies are using AI widely but still struggling to turn pilots into deep operational change. AI is everywhere, but institutional absorption remains shallow.

Nations are waking up to the fact that dependence on external models or external compute is not just a business issue. It is becoming a strategic vulnerability.

That gap explains why the labor story is getting so tense. There is now serious evidence that AI can raise output in real jobs. A widely cited NBER study on customer support work found a 14% productivity gain on average, with much larger gains for less experienced workers. But faster work is not the same thing as a settled social contract. Productivity can rise while job ladders weaken, entry-level roles shrink, and managers quietly redesign teams around software rather than people.

The result is a strange economy: companies say AI is important, workers know it is important, and yet few institutions have rebuilt hiring, training, compensation, or evaluation around that fact. AI is not waiting for permission. It is forcing a reorganization that many leaders still describe as a tool rollout.

The second delusion is that AI is mostly a software phenomenon. It is not. It is an infrastructure story, an energy story, and increasingly a geopolitical story. The AI Index argues that frontier development is concentrating around a small number of firms, data centers, and supply-chain choke points. That concern looks even sharper when paired with the International Energy Agency’s Energy and AI analysis, which projects a steep rise in electricity demand from data centers in the coming decade.

This matters because the economics of AI are being shaped by what sits behind the chatbot. Compute capacity, specialized chips, cooling systems, grid access, and water use now matter as much as model cleverness. The IEA’s energy-demand outlook for AI makes clear that efficiency gains will help, but they will not erase the scale effect. More capable systems invite more usage, and more usage pushes infrastructure harder.

The political consequence is obvious. Whoever controls the stack, chips, foundries, cloud platforms, and power, controls more of the future than whoever writes the best marketing copy about “responsible innovation.” That is why the report’s focus on AI sovereignty feels so timely. Nations are waking up to the fact that dependence on external models or external compute is not just a business issue. It is becoming a strategic vulnerability.

Whoever controls the stack, chips, foundries, cloud platforms, and power, controls more of the future than whoever writes the best marketing copy about “responsible innovation.

Policy still looks smaller than the problem, but it is no longer absent. Europe’s AI Act framework has created the world’s most ambitious attempt to regulate AI by risk category. In the United States, however, the Trump administration refuses to consider any real AI regulation, and is trying to prevent states from regulating it as well, instead focusing on pushing the pedal full speed ahead. The US does have risk management tools such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. Meanwhile, the OECD AI Policy Observatory now tracks hundreds of national AI initiatives, a sign that governments everywhere know they are behind.

Yet public confidence remains weak, and not without reason. A Pew Research Center survey found a striking gap between AI experts and the public on jobs, the economy, and social impact. Experts see upside. The public sees disruption. Both sides, in different ways, are reacting to the same reality: AI is moving from novelty to structure.

That means governance is no longer a brake on innovation. It is part of the innovation race itself. The countries and companies that win the next phase will not simply build stronger models. They will build more trusted deployment systems, clearer accountability, better workforce transitions, and more resilient public infrastructure.

The most important question in AI has changed. It is no longer whether models will keep improving. They will. The harder question is whether our institutions can improve fast enough to live with them. The real divide in 2026 is not between believers and skeptics. It is between organizations that understand AI as a total system shift, and those still treating it like a clever app. The first group is redesigning for the future. The second is waiting to be overwhelmed.

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About the Author

Dr. Gleb TsipurskyDr. Gleb Tsipursky was named “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times for helping leaders overcome frustrations with Generative AI. He serves as the CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote seven best-selling books, and his two most recent ones are Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams and ChatGPT for Leaders and Content Creators: Unlocking the Potential of Generative AI. His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, Time, Business Insider, Fortune, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His writing was translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Korean, French, Vietnamese, German, and other languages. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, with 8 years as a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill and 7 years as a professor at Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Trump Media Pitches Premium Access to Truth Social Posts for Wall Street

Trump Media Pitches Premium Access

Trump Media & Technology Group is reportedly offering Wall Street firms faster access to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts through a new service called Truth API. According to Reuters, the company has discussed charging as much as $100,000 per month, or $60,000 monthly under a three-year agreement, for the data feed. The service is set to launch on August 1 and will provide real-time access to posts from some of the platform’s most influential accounts.

The offering is aimed at banks, hedge funds, and high-frequency trading firms, where even a slight speed advantage can influence trading decisions. Trump’s social media posts have previously moved financial markets, including a 2025 announcement that paused some tariffs, which triggered a sharp rally in U.S. stocks. Trump Media said the new product will also include an archive of posts dating back to 2022.

The plan has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics advocates, who argue it could allow the president and his family to benefit financially from access to market-moving information. Trump Media has not disclosed pricing publicly or identified customers that have signed up for the service. The company says the Truth API marks its first step into data licensing as it looks to expand beyond its social media business.

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Hormuz Maritime Disruption on EU and Asian Supply Chains

Hormuz Maritime Disruption on EU and Asian Supply Chains

By Yingzhi Zhang and Byron McKinney

The effects of continued maritime disruption in Hormuz have the potential to further impact supply chains and certain industries will feel it more directly.

Trade restrictions are likely to continue in the Strait of Hormuz even with a peace deal between the US and Iran and while the supply and price of oil is the primary impacted commodity, other products also highlight similar risks. Supply chains for chemicals, autos and electronics firms located in the EU and Asia-Pacific are most at risk of serious disruption. 

Risks to European Supply Chains 

While many European Union (EU) member states do not have a major dependency on West Asian countries for oil and natural gas, there is a secondary reliance based on the derivative products manufactured from these upstream commodities such as petrochemicals, rare gases and aluminium. These downstream products are crucial to a number of European industries most notably those in the chemical industry and its offshoots. As much as half of all EU imports of major chemicals come from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Additionally, dependencies exist for the EU via indirect supply chain and maritime routes with the Asia-Pacific region which supplies to European industries. The biggest EU trading partners in the GCC zone are Saudi Arabia and UAE which have been able to facilitate a degree of oil supply through the Yanbu and Fujairah port terminals respectively but this rerouting of oil and refined products has not been able to offset substantially the reduction in exports from the region. 

Risks to Asian Supply Chains

East of the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas is largely imported to Asian economies from the GCC, yet a variety of derivative mineral items also play an important and distinctive role in Asian economic supply. For example, India’s total imports from the UAE, excluding oil and gas, was the largest of the GCC-6 countries, standing at over US$ 42 billion in 2025, followed by Saudi Arabia at US$ 8.13 billion. Saudi Arabia was the largest among the GCC partners exporting to mainland China with US$9.3 billion non-oil and gas imports in 2025. For the major Asian economies of Japan, Korea, India, China and Australia, over 300 items at the 6-digit Harmonised Schema (HS) code level recorded at least a 10% import dependency from the GCC region. India maintains the highest exposure across minerals, salts, chemicals, plastics and metals. Australia, China, Japan and South Korea have a particular reliance on GCC supply for fertilisers, metal products, chemicals and plastics. Despite the difference in scope and scale of GCC dependency for the EU and Asia, petrochemicals are the stand-out common category for both regions. 

Petrochemical Dependencies 

A significant majority of chemicals used in high-tech industries are derived from oil and its associated products. Large scale facilities in the GCC region, owned and operated by global commodity verticals, are operationally designed to convert oil and gas into petchems and their derivatives. These downstream goods highlighted in Chart 1 are the most dependent chemicals that the EU imports from the GCC. Chemicals such as Cyclohexane, Diethanolamine and Triethanolamine have absolute EU import values in excess of 70%. These chemicals have a variety of uses in European industry, including agricultural products, industrial solvents, concrete mixtures and plastic components. The associated industries using these chemical products sourced from the GCC are the automotive, technology and semiconductor sectors. German manufacturing and its partner firms in Poland and Hungary are most at risk of all the EU member states.

Chart 1 – Petrochemical EU imports from GCC countries as a percentage of EU imports from the world overall (2025). The size of the bubble corresponds to the absolute import value. (Source: United Nations Comtrade)

Chart 1

An adequate export of petchems and other goods to German and European industry could be further disrupted in the coming months, depending on how the Strait of Hormuz is opened and any potential issues with the Iran-US Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). 

Other Sources of Supply 

Sourcing commodities and products from other countries and regions is possible, although supply chain shocks are global and have affected the physical ability of other countries to import and export critical goods. Alternative sources of supply for many commodities and products from West Asia including petchems do exist. Important petrochemicals and rare gases can be shipped to some extent via the Arab ports on the Red Sea but at a reduced scale. Furthermore, alternatives from the Far East will likely be constrained in the coming months. Japan and South Korea are the world’s major exporters of Cyclohexane and Para-Xylene (Dimethylbenzene), both used in plastics, fibre and pharmaceutical processing. In the current circumstances it is unlikely these two countries could pick up any slack, as constraints in Hormuz are affecting both Japanese and Korean oil imports. Japan’s significant drawdown on its strategic petroleum reserves since the US/Israel attack on Iran in late February underlines overall capacity constraints. These will impact indirectly EU industries, especially automotive, plastics and the chemical sector. The longer Hormuz remains closed or severely constrained, the higher likelihood that stockpiles in Asia run even lower and EU industry loses multiple sources of critical goods. 

Asian Petrochemical Weaknesses 

Petrochemicals have an equal importance to the major Asian economies. As Chart 2 shows, a few petrochemical items, such as styrene, rare gas, diethanolamine and ethylene glycol used in cosmetics, fertilisers and textile manufacturing are significant to Asian economies in terms of value and share, as much as they are in Europe. Rare gas imports also demonstrate significance due to its usage in the semiconductor and wider electronics industries across Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The share of GCC supply in each countries total import ranges from 33.1% for Japan to 86% for Australia, with the percentage for China, South Korea and India all above or near 50%. Further differences between Asian and European markets for GCC chemical imports are found in Asia’s strong reliance on urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) as fertilisers in the agriculture sector. 

Chart 2 – Petrochemical Asia and Oceania major economies (Australia, Mainland China, Japan, India, South Korea) import from GCC countries as a percentage of their imports from the world overall (2025). The size of the bubble corresponds to the absolute import value. (Source: United Nations Comtrade)

Chart 2

There are certain petrochemical items appearing in the EU’s top GCC dependency list which are not on Asia’s register. Cyclohexane for example, topped the EU’s GCC import list with a market dependency of 82%, but this same chemical has almost no import significance in Asian economies. However, while Japan has been an exporter of Cyclohexane, its monthly outflows since March have dropped by over 80% compared to pre-Hormuz loadings as the country shifted from export to storage. Equally, the United States export of petrochemicals to the EU in April 2026 quadrupled month-on-month to nearly US$ 17million as Europe looked to manage a GCC supply crunch. Ethylene glycol is imported heavily from the GCC by Asian countries, but when observed at the country level there appears to be a recent rebalance happening. China is one of the key exporters of ethylene glycol and has been increasing its supply since March 2026 after the war broke out, bringing the export in the first five months to a level almost equivalent to its overall total in 2025, at around US$ 34 million.

Import Dependency Extends Further 

There are other items outside the petroleum sector which the GCC supplies to EU member states and Asia. Aluminium under its broader ‘metal product’ category is one of them. In Asia, import from the GCC-6 accounts for 15.5% and 14.8% for Japan and India’s total aluminium imports respectively. Plastics also highlights a minor but noticeable exposure to GCC supply for the EU, China and India. The wide applications of such metals and plastics, are more pronounced in the automotive manufacturing sector for body parts and interior fittings.

Conclusion 

The Hormuz impact across upstream resources (raw energy commodities), intermediaries (chemicals) and materials (aluminium and plastics) are widely spread across different continents.  A ‘single point of failure’ to even a few key items can quickly lead to supply chain imbalances. For downstream, industrial material items, a structural supply imbalance is more likely rather than total supply shock, as alternative sources are still possible for now. Interconnected supply chains though can still put distribution routes however established under pressure. In examples where no stock holding or concentrated source can be utilised as an alternative by firms, a stranglehold is likely to bring disruption to supply with costly price increases.

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About the Authors

Yingzhi Zhang

Yingzhi Zhang is a specialist in trade and shipping at S&P Global, supporting organisations in commodity trade and shipping with data and insights into freight market and trade flows. She has continual contribution to data-driven insight generation covering topics including supply chain management, international trade and digitisation.

Byron McKinney

Byron McKinney is a senior director for global risk at Dow Jones, where he focuses on assisting international firms managing their geopolitical and sanctions risk. He has authored papers on maritime sanctions evasion, strategic goods risk management, country specific export control policy and contributed to articles in Politico, Global Trade Review, The Telegraph and TradeWinds on these topics.

Waiting Indonesia’s Long-Gone Leadership in the Region

Indonesia leadership

By Darynaufal Mulyaman

Indonesia’s vast mineral wealth and strategic geography position it for regional leadership, but turning potential into influence requires stronger commitments and clearer priorities.

Critical minerals, undersea cables, logistics corridors, and the fast digitalisation wave of cyber, AI, and IT have dominated the headlines of the Asia Pacific and its wider Indo Pacific surroundings for years running, and environmental stress sits quietly beneath every one of them. These are not separate stories. They are interlocking chapters of the same contest over who controls the arteries of the twenty first century economy, and Indonesia sits at nearly every one of those arteries at once.

Indonesia’s Idle Assets

The country holds the world’s largest nickel reserves and, according to the Lowy Institute, now supplies more than half of global nickel output, a dominance that cuts both ways. The Financial Times reported that in April 2026 the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta warned the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources that regulatory tightening threatened fifty billion dollars in existing and planned Chinese investment, a reminder that Beijing’s capital still shapes the ownership structure behind Indonesia’s downstream success. Beyond nickel, the archipelagic sea lanes known as ALKI carry a substantial share of regional maritime traffic, while Indonesia’s data centre market, valued near 1.6 billion dollars in 2025, is projected by Mordor Intelligence to reach roughly 3.48 billion dollars by 2031 at a compound annual growth rate above thirteen percent, anchored by Jakarta’s fibre density and Batam’s sub five millisecond latency to Singapore. Sixty submarine cables already connect the archipelago, with roughly a dozen more planned, and its rainforest reserves remain among the planet’s largest carbon sinks. On paper, the ingredients for regional leadership are already assembled, sitting largely idle.

Japan wants to work with this potential rather than around it. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s updated Free and Open Indo Pacific framework, unveiled during her May 2026 visit to Hanoi, places economic infrastructure for the AI and data era, supply chain resilience for energy and critical materials, and public private co creation at its centre, according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the IISS. That vision has already taken concrete form. Bahlil Lahadalia and Ryosei Akazawa signed a memorandum on critical minerals and nuclear energy cooperation on the sidelines of the Indo Pacific Energy Security Ministerial in Tokyo, while SoftBank and Meta’s newly announced Candle cable will link Japan to Southeast Asia through a landing point in Batam.

Can Tokyo Be Trusted? 

Is Japan reliable enough to anchor this cooperation. The 2025 ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute survey found that close to sixty seven percent of Southeast Asian respondents trust Japan, a figure well above regional rivals, as Foreign Affairs has noted. Tokyo’s own framing has never been about decoupling from China but about defending the rules that keep a fragile regional peace intact. That distinction matters for Jakarta, whose nickel industry remains structurally bound to Chinese capital, personnel, and offtake agreements even as its downstream policy is domestically framed as sovereignty rather than dependence. A pragmatic Indonesia should read Japan’s offer as room to layer capital, technology, and standards onto existing supply chains rather than an invitation to sever them.

Whether the Indo Pacific remains a relevant frame at all is itself contested. Some scholars, writing in the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, argue that ASEAN centrality has become hard to sustain because major powers increasingly value ASEAN led mechanisms for economics while treating security cooperation as a matter for smaller, more exclusive minilaterals such as the Quad and AUKUS. Others counter that no single power can afford to bypass ASEAN’s convening role, and that the 2019 ASEAN Outlook on the Indo Pacific, itself an Indonesian proposal championed by then Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, still supplies connective tissue the region cannot easily replace. Rizal Sukma’s decade old warning to CSIS researchers, that Indonesia may need to weigh a life beyond ASEAN if fellow members will not match Jakarta’s commitment, feels freshly relevant as President Prabowo’s diplomacy visibly ranges well past the bloc.

From Bebas Aktif to Strategic Hedging 

Indonesia’s own compass appears to be drifting from bebas aktif toward something closer to strategic autonomy with preferred alignments. Free and active remains the official liturgy, repeated by Prabowo as recently as March 2026 amid the Iran crisis, yet the doctrine has stretched to accommodate a Beijing visit yielding ten billion dollars in deals, BRICS accession, a Moscow trip, and membership in the Trump initiated Board of Peace, a sequence that reads less like non alignment and more like calculated positioning across every available pole. Foreign Minister Sugiono’s language of a diplomacy of resilience, unveiled in his January 2026 annual statement, has drawn criticism from East Asia Forum analysts as conceptually thin, a mode of risk management rather than a strategy with clear priorities and acknowledged trade offs.

What the region needs now is less rhetorical branding and more pragmatic, sector specific delivery. Joint mineral processing standards could keep supply chains bankable without surrendering value capture to any single patron. Shared cable landing and repair capacity among ASEAN members would ensure no single chokepoint decides connectivity for the half billion people the region’s digital economy is meant to serve. Data governance rules built ahead of hyperscale capacity, rather than retrofitted afterward, would spare the region the regulatory scramble now visible in Batam and Johor alike. Indonesia is positioned to anchor all three tracks, yet its foreign policy bandwidth is visibly consumed by domestic scrutiny, budget reallocation toward a new sovereign wealth fund, expanding military roles in civilian governance, and criticism over the Board of Peace episode. The consequence, as several observers have noted, is a foreign policy increasingly personalised around the president’s own visibility, one that generates headlines abroad while producing comparatively few binding regional commitments at home, initiatives whose eventual impact on the region trends toward near zero. 

The Leadership Still Waiting to Happen 

Indonesia’s nickel floor, its sea lanes, its data centre corridor, and its forests are precisely the assets a region contesting minerals, cables, logistics, and technology urgently needs anchored somewhere credible. Japan’s calibrated offer, unlikely to force a binary choice, gives Jakarta room to build without decoupling. What is missing is follow through, the willingness to convert a resilient sounding doctrine into concrete regional commitments rather than another round of personalised diplomacy. Until that happens, the region keeps waiting for a leadership that Indonesia’s own potential has already made overdue.

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About the Author 

Darynaufal Mulyaman

Darynaufal Mulyaman or Dary is currently an assistant professor at International Relations Study Program, Universitas Kristen Indonesia. His research interests including Soft Power, that include but not limited to Pop Culture, Korean studies, Asia Pacific region, third world, international development, cooperation, and political economy.

References 
1. Asialink. (2026, February 3). Authoritarian risks in Indonesia’s foreign policy tilt. 
2. CSIS New Perspectives on Asia. (2025, July 30). Ebbs and Flows, ASEAN Centrality Amid Shifting Tides. 
3. CSIS Analysis. (2025, November 18). The Strategic Future of Subsea Cables, Singapore Case Study. 
4. Crux Investor. (2026, July). The New Nickel Floor, How Indonesia’s Supply Controls Are Reshaping Global Project Economics. 
5. East Asia Forum. (2026, February 18). The limits of Indonesia’s resilience diplomacy. 
6. Foreign Affairs. (2025, November 4). Japan Can Keep the Indo Pacific Open and Free. 
7. IISS. (2026, May). Japan’s update of its Free and Open Indo Pacific framework. 
8. Jakarta Post. (2026, March 11). Indonesia still ‘free and active’, Prabowo claims. 
9. LSE Ideas / China Foresight Blog. (2026, March 4). Prabowo’s Foreign Policy, China, Russia, BRICS and US Signalling. 
10. Lowy Institute. (2025, March 4). The future of Indonesia’s green industrial policy. 
11. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. (2026). Free and Open Indo-Pacific. 
12. Mordor Intelligence. (2026, January 6). Indonesia Data Center Market Share and Size 2031 Outlook. 
13. Qiao-Franco, G., Karmazin, A., & Kolmaš, M. (2025). The Indo-Pacific and the Next Phase of ASEAN Centrality. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. 
14. RSIS. Sebastian, L. C., & Nurshadrina, D. A. Unpacking Self-Sufficiency in Prabowo’s Free and Active Foreign Policy. 
15. w.media. (2026, May 6). More cables set to land in Batam. 

Leading Through Supply Chain Volatility: Lessons from Scaling a Cross-Border E-Commerce Business

supply chain volatility

By Saleh Taebi

As global supply chains become increasingly unpredictable, successful e-commerce leaders must build resilient operations, embrace technology, and strengthen supplier relationships to continue delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Supply chain volatility has become one of the defining challenges facing modern e-commerce businesses. From global disruptions and shifting consumer demand to evolving trade policies and transportation constraints, today’s leaders must navigate constant uncertainty while continuing to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Successful supply chain management is no longer just an operational function. It has become one of the most important competitive advantages a business can build.

Why Has Supply Chain Volatility Become the New Normal? 

Over the past several years, businesses have experienced unprecedented disruption. The pandemic exposed weaknesses throughout global supply chains, while geopolitical events, inflation, labour shortages, transportation delays, and changing trade policies have continued to reshape how companies operate.

For e-commerce businesses, these challenges are amplified. Customers expect accurate inventory, competitive pricing, fast delivery, and complete transparency regardless of what is happening behind the scenes.

Meeting those expectations requires more than simply reacting to problems as they occur. It requires building an organization designed to adapt quickly. Every disruption presents new challenges and reinforces an important lesson: resilience begins long before problems arise.

Organizations that consistently outperform during uncertain periods invest in systems, supplier relationships, and operational visibility before they become necessary.

How Can E-Commerce Businesses Build a More Resilient Supply Chain? 

One of the biggest misconceptions about supply chain resilience is that it can be solved through a single technology platform or supplier.

In reality, resilience comes from diversification. 

Whenever possible, businesses should avoid depending on a single supplier, warehouse, shipping provider, or inventory source. Multiple distribution partners create flexibility that allows businesses to continue serving customers even when disruptions occur.

Equally important is developing strong supplier relationships. The best partnerships extend beyond pricing discussions. Open communication, mutual trust, and shared planning often determine how effectively businesses navigate unexpected challenges together.

Technology also plays an essential role.

Real-time inventory synchronization, automated product data, intelligent forecasting, and integrated supplier systems enable businesses to make faster decisions with greater confidence. Rather than manually responding to disruptions, organizations can proactively identify issues before customers are affected.

Why Technology Has Become a Competitive Advantage in Modern E-Commerce

Technology is no longer simply about improving efficiency. It has become a strategic advantage.

As our business expanded across Canada and the United States, automation became essential for managing the complexity of millions of products, constantly changing inventory levels, supplier integrations, pricing updates, and customer expectations.

Real-time inventory visibility allows our teams to identify supply issues earlier. Automated pricing helps maintain competitiveness while protecting margins. Integrated supplier APIs reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and help ensure customers receive reliable inventory information.

Artificial intelligence is also beginning to play an increasingly important role. While AI will not eliminate supply chain uncertainty, it can help businesses analyze trends, forecast demand, identify anomalies, and support faster operational decision-making.

The objective is not to replace experienced people. The objective is to provide them with better information so they can make better decisions.

Why Customer Experience Should Never Be Sacrificed During Supply Chain Disruptions 

When disruptions occur, many companies focus exclusively on internal operations.

Customers experience something entirely different.

They care about receiving accurate information, realistic delivery timelines, proactive communication, and reliable service.

Businesses that communicate openly during difficult periods often strengthen customer loyalty, even when delays occur.

Throughout our growth, we have learned that transparency builds trust. Customers appreciate honesty far more than unrealistic promises.

Investing in customer communication, order visibility, and responsive support transforms operational challenges into opportunities to reinforce long-term relationships.

Ultimately, resilience is measured not only by how efficiently a business manages disruption, but by how effectively it maintains customer confidence throughout the process.

What Leadership Lessons Have Shaped Our Cross-Border E-Commerce Growth? 

Looking back, the most valuable lessons have had little to do with logistics alone.

Leadership during uncertainty requires making decisions before all the answers are available. It requires investing in technology before immediate returns are visible. It requires building partnerships that extend beyond transactions.

Most importantly, it requires creating a culture that embraces continuous improvement rather than simply responding to problems.

Supply chain resilience is not built during a crisis. It is built through the everyday decisions leaders make regarding technology, people, supplier relationships, and operational excellence.

Organizations that consistently adapt will always be better positioned than those that simply hope conditions improve.

Conclusion 

Supply chain volatility is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. If anything, future disruptions will continue to challenge businesses across every industry.

For today’s e-commerce leaders, success depends on far more than managing inventory or negotiating shipping rates. It requires building resilient systems, leveraging technology intelligently, cultivating trusted supplier relationships, and maintaining an unwavering commitment to customer experience.

The businesses that thrive over the next decade will not necessarily be those with the largest supply chains. They will be the organizations that adapt the fastest, make decisions with confidence, and continue delivering value regardless of the challenges ahead.

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About the Author

Saleh Taebi

Saleh Taebi is a Canadian technology entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of CanadaWheels and USAWheels, leading e-commerce platforms for wheels, tires, and automotive parts across North America. He bootstrapped CanadaWheels into an award-winning eight-figure business and continues to drive innovation in automotive e-commerce through technology, automation, and customer experience.

Why Your Marketing Strategy Isn’t Generating Leads, According to Marketing Expert Robin Dimond

Marketing strategy

Fifth & Cor’s founder explains why businesses mistake activity for strategy, and what leaders should do instead.

Businesses today have more marketing channels available than at any point in history. From social media and paid advertising to search engine optimization, email campaigns, brand partnerships, and content marketing, organizations have countless opportunities to reach potential customers. Yet despite investing significant time and resources, many continue to face the same challenge: generating qualified leads.

Robin Dimond

According to Robin Dimond, Founder and CEO of Fifth & Cor, the problem isn’t a lack of marketing activity. It’s a lack of strategic direction.

Dimond leads Fifth & Cor, a full-service marketing agency that helps brands accelerate growth through brand strategy, partnerships, content, and integrated marketing execution. Throughout her career, she has guided organizations across consumer products, healthcare, aesthetics, automotive, home services, and other emerging industries, giving her a front-row seat to the marketing challenges businesses repeatedly encounter.

“The companies struggling most aren’t necessarily doing too little,” Dimond explained during our conversation. “They’re often doing the wrong things exceptionally well.”

When Marketing Activity Replaces Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest misconceptions Dimond sees is the belief that consistency alone produces results.

Many organizations maintain active social media accounts, run paid advertising campaigns, publish blogs, and send email newsletters. Yet despite checking every marketing box, sales pipelines remain flat.

According to Dimond, that’s because many companies begin with tactics rather than strategy.

Businesses frequently attempt to appeal to everyone instead of defining a clear audience and positioning that differentiates them from competitors. Without that strategic foundation, marketing efforts become disconnected activities rather than coordinated drivers of customer acquisition.

As Dimond puts it, “Visibility becomes credibility. Credibility becomes trust. Trust becomes revenue. Skip a step, and the leads won’t come.”

Brand Awareness Alone Doesn’t Create Customers

Throughout the interview, Dimond emphasized that many organizations confuse brand awareness with lead generation.

Recognition certainly matters, she noted, but visibility alone doesn’t persuade customers to buy.

Consumers first need confidence that a brand can deliver on its promises. That trust is built through consistent messaging, thought leadership, earned media, customer experiences, and authentic credibility.

In increasingly competitive markets, simply attracting attention isn’t enough.

“Visibility gets you noticed,” Dimond said. “Trust gets you chosen.”

Why More Leads Aren’t Always Better

Businesses often celebrate increasing website traffic or growing email databases, but Dimond cautions against treating lead volume as the primary measure of success.

She argues that qualified customer acquisition should always outweigh quantity.

Rather than pursuing thousands of low-quality inquiries, organizations should focus on attracting prospects who closely match their ideal customer profile and have genuine purchase intent.

According to Dimond, that shift alone can dramatically improve sales performance while reducing wasted marketing spend.

Measuring Marketing ROI Beyond Vanity Metrics

Marketing ROI remains one of the industry’s most misunderstood concepts.

Dimond believes many executives continue relying on vanity metrics, including impressions, likes, followers, and engagement, while overlooking the measurements that truly matter.

Even organizations focused on attribution often rely too heavily on last-click reporting, despite today’s increasingly complex customer journeys.

Consumers rarely convert after a single interaction. Instead, they engage with brands across multiple platforms before making purchasing decisions.

For that reason, Dimond recommends evaluating the complete customer journey rather than assigning success to only the final interaction before conversion.

When an In-House Marketing Team Needs Outside Expertise

Another common challenge involves expecting internal marketing teams to perform too many specialized functions simultaneously.

Dimond frequently encounters businesses asking one employee to manage strategy, content creation, design, photography, videography, analytics, public relations, advertising, and reporting.

She believes that’s often a sign the organization needs additional strategic support rather than simply more effort from existing staff.

Whether through outsourced marketing, consulting, or agency partnerships, outside expertise can provide specialized skills while allowing internal teams to focus on execution and long-term priorities.

“The businesses that scale fastest aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest internal departments,” Dimond observed. “They’re the ones that know when to bring in the right expertise.”

Successful Product Launches Begin Long Before Launch Day

Product launches were another area where Dimond believes companies frequently miss opportunities.

Many businesses concentrate their efforts on generating excitement for launch day itself while overlooking the preparation required beforehand.

According to Dimond, successful product launches educate audiences well before release, communicate the transformation customers can expect, and provide clear next steps when interest is highest.

Momentum, she argues, should continue well beyond the launch announcement rather than ending once a campaign goes live.

Strategic Partnerships Create Faster Growth

One of the most underutilized opportunities in modern marketing, according to Dimond, is strategic brand partnerships.

Collaborating with complementary businesses allows companies to reach audiences that already trust another organization, reducing the time and investment typically required to build credibility independently.

Rather than relying exclusively on paid advertising, partnerships can accelerate marketing growth by combining audiences, expertise, and reputation.

“The brands winning today aren’t simply spending more,” Dimond said. “They’re building together.”

Marketing Success Begins With Strategy

Before increasing advertising budgets or adding new marketing channels, Dimond recommends that business leaders first evaluate their strategic foundation.

That includes reviewing messaging, website performance, SEO, customer experience, brand positioning, and the consistency of every customer touchpoint.

Marketing becomes significantly more effective when every initiative supports the same business objective.

Her central message is straightforward: sustainable growth isn’t created by doing more marketing. It’s created by aligning every marketing effort with a clear strategy designed to build trust, improve customer acquisition, and deliver measurable marketing ROI.

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Trump Says Iran Seeks Talks as U.S. Expands Strikes

Trump Says Iran Seeks Talks as U.S. Expands Strikes

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran wants to return to negotiations, even as the U.S. military launched another round of strikes against Iranian targets, raising fresh concerns that the conflict could deepen.

Speaking before an event in Pennsylvania, Trump said his administration had received word that Tehran wanted to meet and reach a deal. Around the same time, U.S. Central Command confirmed it had carried out a second wave of attacks within 12 hours, targeting Iranian military sites it said threatened shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, however, continued to project a defiant stance, with senior officials saying the country remained ready to fight while leaving the door open to diplomacy.

The latest escalation follows several days of military exchanges between Washington and Tehran, with oil prices remaining elevated as investors watch for possible disruptions to energy shipments through the Gulf. Trump has also warned that additional strikes could target Iranian infrastructure if negotiations fail.

Security analysts said the conflict shows little sign of ending soon. Some warned that without a clear diplomatic breakthrough, the fighting could turn into a prolonged low-level conflict, increasing risks for regional stability, global energy markets and international shipping.

Related Readings:

Iran Peace Deal Advances as U.S. Ends Blockade

Iran Deal Progress Lifts Markets

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