The tanker battles are escalating once again, but the threat of outages and rising tension in the Persian Gulf has failed to meaningfully move oil prices. On Friday, Iranian forces seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, sending a shock of alarm through the oil market and leading to another round of escalation between Iran and western powers. A second boat was also stopped by Iranian forces, although it was later released. But despite tough talk from the UK government – threatening “serious consequences” for Iran – British Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood said that he wanted to de-escalate the situation. The foreign secretary also said that the UK would be using diplomacy to resolve the standoff, and was not looking at military options. The Iranian seizure of a British ship on Friday comes after the UK seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar earlier this month. […]