One really interesting thing about the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s is that tankers were getting shot up, bombed, and hit by missiles constantly, and the price of oil was collapsing pretty much the whole time.
Another interesting thing is that it revealed it’s next to impossible to sink a supertanker; they’re just so damn big, and crude isn’t THAT flammable.
You don’t have to sink a supertanker
You just have to create conditions that make Gulf shipping uninsurable (or prohibitively expensive) by Lloyds
Then the commercial interests and their bankers demand military intervention. and off we go
escorts redux
From 1980 to about 1985 our production climbed while our consumption declined.
We did a lot to affect the world pricing at that time.
It got so bad for oil producers on the west coast, that in July 1986 the average price for Alaskan North Slope Oil delivered down in Washington and California was about $3.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=F005071__3&f=M