Leo Hohmann – Leo’s Newsletter May 13, 2026

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More than 45 oil and gas refineries have reported fires and explosions globally in the last month and a half, marking a significant increase over what’s considered “normal” in the way of industrial accidents.

The drastic uptick in explosions is being racked up to warfare in places like Russia and “accidents” in the United States, Mexico, Australia, Romania and India.

TRT World reports:

“Taken together, they point to an energy system operating under unusual pressure at a moment of global instability.”

On Monday, May 11, firefighters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, responded to a fire at the HF Sinclair refinery around 11 a.m., with dramatic video showing massive flames and thick black smoke rising from the facility. Officials have not yet determined the cause of the fire, and no information has been released about possible injuries.

Just a few days before that, on May 8, an explosion and fire occurred at the Chalmette Refining facility, located about 10 miles east of New Orleans, Louisiana. The fire was attributed to an unspecified mechanical failure in an operating unit. Cause undetermined.

The explosion sent thick smoke into the air, rattled homes across parts of St. Bernard Parish, and sparked concerns from residents about why warning alarms did not go off after the blast.

When asked, authorities could not or would not identify what chemical was on fire at the facility.

Another explosion and fire occurred at the Valero oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, on March 23, 2026.

And these explosions aren’t limited to petro-chemical plants in the United States.

In the last 45 days, more than 45 oil and gas facilities worldwide have reported fires and explosions.

The incidents have occurred across multiple regions, highlighting a widespread issue in the energy sector.

There is almost never a clearly determined cause for these fires and explosions. Are the world’s energy facilities under attack, possibly involving sabotage, a type of fifth-generation warfare against food and energy? That’s the question some are starting to ask.

The increase in fires and explosions leads to tighter energy supplies and higher prices, affecting both consumers and industries dependent on these resources at the same time supplies are already at historically low levels due to the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

To compensate for the world losing 13 million barrels a day of oil going through the Strait of Hormuz, many countries have released oil from their strategic reserves, which will at some point run dry. And this isn’t the only war affecting the production and distribution of oil and natural gas. Ukraine has been blowing up Russian oil refineries and storage facilities at a steady rate for the last several months, using its sophisticated drone arsenal to take more than 25 percent of Russian oil production off the market.

Over the last two months, refineries and fuel storage facilities around the world have caught fire due to war (Russia, UAE, Qatar) or alleged accidents (Australia, the United States, India and Mexico), adding more pressure to stressed oil and gas supply chains.

In an effort to keep oil prices down in the wake of the Iran war, President Trump released more than 172 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The U.S. currently has less than 450 million barrels of oil remaining in its Strategic Reserve. That compares to 1.7 billion barrels that China has stored up in reserve. So, China is in a much better position to wait out the supply crisis and yet Trump continues to threaten new escalations of the Iran war.

Speaking of the Iran war, it looks like the U.S. and Israel are about to resume hostilities after a few weeks cooling off period. I wrote in April that I thought any ceasefire would be temporary because neither side is even close to the point where they are ready to concede defeat, and without a clear loser, the war won’t end.

Wars are typically fought until one side or the other wins, and that side gets to write the terms of the peace. But in the Iran war, both sides are still bragging daily about how they’ve won the war. That means we have plenty of warfare left to play out and we have likely seen only the opening salvos of this war. Much more blood will be spilled on both sides before one side ultimately decides it has had enough.

As of Monday, the average nationwide gas price was $4.52 a gallon in the U.S., according to the AAA motor club. That’s more than 50% higher than the average price of $2.91 a gallon before Trump launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28.

Trump on Tuesday said he “does not even think about” the financial stress Americans have come under thanks to his unprovoked war of choice against Iran. All he thinks about is stopping Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, he said.

Speaking on the White House South Lawn before departing for a diplomatic trip to China, Trump was asked to what extent “Americans’ financial situations” were motivating him to make a deal with Iran.

“Not even a little bit,” Trump replied. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

A reporter followed up on whether he really wasn’t thinking about the economic impact of the war.

“The most important thing by far — including whether our stock market, which, by the way, is at an all-time high — but including whether our stock market goes up or down a little bit, the most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said, adding, “Every American understands.”

Does “every American” really “understand” and give Trump a pass for placing the interests of the Israel lobby, the Washington neocon war hawks, and other foreign interests ahead of their financial well being? I suppose we will find out come November’s midterm elections, but I thought most people who voted for Trump wanted an end to the endless money pit devoted to foreign wars.

I believe the Iran war is shaping up to be a war of attrition that goes on for many months, if not years, just like the Russia-Ukraine was in Eastern Europe. Both wars are being funded from the outside and make up different fronts in the same war, which will at some point be labeled World War III. It just takes a while for the historical markers to be laid down and catch up with the facts on the ground.

And the globalists are using this war to tighten the screws on global energy supplies, hoping to further crush the middle class in America, Canada and Europe. They want us out of our cars, living in tiny homes or apartments, using a fraction of the energy we currently use, drastically reducing the amount of meat we consume, while they, the billionaires and multi-millionaires, go on living it up at our expense.

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