Life is not getting easier for Asia's oil market players. Six months into the US-Iran war, security of supply is still front and center for a region that is painfully short crude and products. Trading is increasingly complicated by new sanctions and more war damage. Russia's drone-battered refining system is struggling to produce anywhere near capacity, further tightening Asia's stretched products market. Still, traders at S&P Global Energy's Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (Appec) in Singapore this week said they are proud of their resilience in keeping the region reasonably supplied throughout the turmoil but are weary of war and the market complexities it creates. Indeed, this week, Brent crude surged past $100 per barrel for the first time since July as attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz ramped up. Before the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Asia imported some 15 million barrels per day of crude oil from the Mideast. Buyers were still receiving February-loaded cargoes through March and April but then had to start dipping into inventories, as only trickles of supplies slipped through Hormuz. Quick action to lower refinery runs, pivots to alternative shipping routes by key suppliers Saudi Arabia and the UAE, more shipments from the Americas and the rapid release of OECD strategic reserves helped prevent total disaster; lower imports from China and further draws on commercial stocks further helped stabilize the market. A short-lived US-Iran ceasefire in June saw crude flows through Hormuz briefly spike and oil prices fall hard before the strait became unsafe to pass yet again — the new status quo. Today, Asia largely relies on stealth crude and products shipments on tankers willing to defy Iran's missile threats; estimates of oil getting through range from 4 million-10 million b/d.