Numerous international and domestic organizations play a role in the security of maritime energy commodities. The list of stakeholders outside the United States is quite diverse. They include international organizations, governments of nations where tankers load or where tankers are registered, and owners and operators of tankers or facilities (see table 1). On the domestic side, the U.S. Coast Guard is the lead federal agency and is responsible for a wide array of maritime safety and security activities. Other U.S. government agencies support the Coast Guard’s maritime security mission by addressing a wide range of issues that affect the flow of cargo and people into the United States. State and local governments and the private sector also have responsibilities to secure domestic ports. Table 2 lists key federal agencies and other stakeholders on the domestic side, together with examples of the kinds of maritime security activities performed. All of these international and domestic stakeholders help to ensure the safety and security of a global supply chain that brings energy commodities to the United States. This supply chain spans the globe and reaches many regions of the world. Each day, the United States imports many different energy commodities from overseas suppliers in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Excluding Canada, which supplies petroleum and natural gas to the United States via pipeline, the vast majority of these varied imports arrive by tanker. The various types of energy commodities require different handling methods, and as a result, various kinds of tankers have been built to accommodate them. An LNG carrier is designed for transporting LNG at minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, when gas liquefies and shrinks drastically in volume. The cargo is transported in special tanks insulated to minimize evaporation. LNG carriers are up to 1,000 feet long and have a draft (depth below the water line) of 40 feet when fully loaded. The global LNG fleet is expected to double from 200 in 2006 to over 400 by 2010. According to industry reports, the existing fleet has completed more than 33,000 voyages without a substantial spill. Oil tankers are more numerous and vary greatly in size. Tankers transporting crude oil from the Middle East generally consist of Very Large Crude Carriers, which typically carry more than 2 million barrels of oil per voyage. These ships are over 1,000 feet long, nearly 200 feet wide, and have a draft of over 65 feet. Figure 1 shows a typical Very Large Crude Carrier. These ships are too big for most U.S. ports and must transfer their loads to smaller tankers (a process called lightering) or unload at an offshore terminal. At present, the United States has only one such offshore terminal—the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). Most tankers transporting cargos from the Caribbean and South America, by contrast, are smaller than Very Large Crude Carriers and can enter U.S. ports directly. There are generally two enforcement systems aimed at ensuring that these vessels are in compliance with applicable regulations, laws, and conventions: flag state control and port state control. The flag state is the country in which the vessel is registered. Flag state control can extend anywhere in the world where the vessel operates. For example, a flag state’s requirements set the standards for the operation and maintenance of all vessels flying that flag. If the flag state is a contracting government to the SOLAS Convention, these standards are required to be at least as stringent as those included in the ISPS Code. The port state is the country where the port is located. Port state control is the process by which a nation exercises its authority over foreign-flagged vessels operating in waters subject to its jurisdiction. It is intended to ensure that vessels comply with all domestic requirements for ensuring safety of the port, environment, and personnel. Thus, when a foreign-flagged oil tanker enters a U.S. port, the U.S. port state control program, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard, becomes the primary means of marine safety enforcement. For example, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires that all tankers built after 1994 coming to the United States must have double hulls—that is, a two-layered hull to help prevent spills resulting from a collision or grounding (see fig. 2). According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumes more than 20 million barrels of petroleum every day. Of that amount, over 65 percent comes from foreign sources. The top suppliers of crude oil and petroleum products to the United States in 2005 were Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria—each supplying over 1 million barrels of petroleum per day (see fig. 3). Iraq, Algeria, Angola, Russia, and the United Kingdom are also major energy suppliers with daily imports to the United States of up to 500,000 barrels per day. These top 10 energy suppliers accounted for approximately 75 percent of all U.S. petroleum imports in 2005. All petroleum imports to the United States from those countries arrive on tankers, except those from Canada. Imports are a growing portion of the natural gas supply in the United States. With consumption of natural gas growing faster than domestic production, imports of natural gas will almost certainly continue to rise, according to the Energy Information Administration. Today, Canada is the primary supplier of natural gas to the United States and all of natural gas imports from Canada are carried by pipeline. Approximately 3 percent of all natural gas imports to the United States is LNG. Trinidad and Tobago is the single largest supplier of LNG to the United States, supplying 70 percent of all LNG imported into this country (see fig. 4). Other LNG suppliers in 2005 included Algeria, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, and Oman. The United States imports about 65 percent of its crude oil and petroleum products as well as about 3 percent of its natural gas needs. As shown in figure 5, certain energy commodities are imported into particular regions of the country. Appendix II provides detailed descriptions of U.S. energy commodity imports transported by tanker. For example, in 2004: Ports along the Gulf Coast imported 62 percent of the crude oil imported to the United States. Ports along the East Coast imported 95 percent of the gasoline and 75 percent of the LNG. Ports along the West Coast imported 60 percent of all jet fuel. The global maritime environment through which the energy supply chain operates is constrained by physical geography and influenced by regional political dynamics. The physical geography of the continents, for example, forces shipping lanes to pass through certain narrow channels, or chokepoints. There are approximately 200 such locations, but only a handful are of strategic importance for the global energy supply (see fig. 6). A chokepoint by definition tends to be shallow and narrow, resulting in impaired navigation and congestion from other tankers, cargo ships, and other smaller vessels, which can impede the free and efficient flow of goods. Moreover, several key chokepoints are surrounded by more than one sovereign nation, resulting in a complex security environment within a constrained physical space. Managing security in this environment requires significant coordination among these countries to successfully manage the security in these locations. According to the Energy Information Administration, chokepoints are susceptible to pirate attacks and shipping accidents in their narrow channels. In addition, chokepoints can be blocked, mined, or rendered inaccessible by foreign naval forces, with potentially devastating consequences for the flow of oil and goods around the world and into the United States. The Straits of Hormuz and Malacca are two critical maritime shipping chokepoints that tankers pass through regularly. The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the oil fields of the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean, is the most important chokepoint in the world in terms of the global energy supply, with about 20 percent of the world oil supply, including 17 percent of U.S. petroleum imports passing through it. Tankers with oil from the Persian Gulf must navigate through this chokepoint in order to access the principal international shipping lanes toward the United States. Another chokepoint, the Strait of Malacca, links the Andaman Sea and the Indian Ocean (and oil coming from the Middle East) with the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean (and major consuming markets in Asia). The Strait of Malacca is located among Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore and about 600 vessels pass through it each day. Piracy and political instability in the region, especially in Indonesia, are issues of concern for shipping operations in the strait. The Energy Information Administration identified other important maritime chokepoints, including the Bab el-Mandab passage from the Arabian Sea, the Panama Canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Suez Canal connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Bosporus Straits linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Besides facing vulnerabilities while in transit, vessels can be vulnerable while moored at facilities where they are receiving or unloading their cargoes, and the energy-related infrastructure located in ports can also be vulnerable to attack. Vessels transiting into and out of ports and their attendant infrastructure can be vulnerable in a number of ways. During transit into and out of port, these vessels travel slowly, which increases their exposure. Tankers follow timetables that are easy to track in advance and they follow a fixed set of maritime routes. Once tankers arrive in this country, they must wait offshore for pilots to navigate the ship channels into many of the nation’s ports. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, increased national attention has been focused on the potential vulnerability of the nation’s 361 major seaports to terrorist attack. According to the National Strategy for Maritime Security, the infrastructure and systems that span the maritime domain have increasingly become both targets of and potential conveyances for dangerous and illicit activities.