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Stopgap measures aren’t enough to halt rising gas prices in the face of the Iran war

Global leaders have been scrambling to contain the rising cost of oil and gasoline since the start of the Iran war, which took a record amount of oil off the market when tankers full of crude were stranded in the Persian Gulf and military strikes damaged refineries, pipelines and export terminals. Hoping to ease some pain for consumers, President Donald Trump and other heads of state have been pulling on various levers, launching more oil on the market in a bid to calm the chaos. A group of 32 nations that are members of the International Energy Agency began releasing the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history: 400 million barrels. Trump is tapping into oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while lifting sanctions on Russian and Iranian crude and temporarily waiving the Jones Act, a maritime law that requires ...

Oil and gas prices won’t immediately return to normal even if the Iran war ends, the EU warns

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Skyrocketing oil and gas prices in Europe as a result of the ongoing Iran war won't return to normal levels any time soon, even if peace is declared tomorrow, the European Union's energy commissioner warned Tuesday. Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said although there are no immediate oil and gas supply shortages in the 27-member bloc, there's pressure on diesel and jet fuel supply as well as "increasing constraints" in global gas markets that are resulting in higher electricity prices. "What I find extremely important is to state as clearly as I can, that even if that peace is here tomorrow, still we will not go back to normal in a foreseeable future," Jørgensen told a news conference after a meeting of EU energy ministers. He said the EU's executive arm is preparing a string of measures designed to help families ...

J.P. Morgan Warns of “Economic Time Bomb” as Global Oil Reserves Near Depletion

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Global Analysts have warned that the impact on global oil supplies will intensify throughout April, describing the situation as akin to an "economic time bomb." Citing a latest report from J.P. Morgan, the U.S.-based multinational investment bank, analysts say that the ongoing war has created a significant risk of depleting global oil reserves. The report notes that this crisis stems from disruptions to oil transportation through the Strait of Hormuz over the past month. The J.P. Morgan report highlighted that Asian countries will be the first to face the risk of oil shortages due to the military climate, followed by Western nations toward the end of April. Currently, nations are surviving on oil reserves already present at land. However, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupting new supplies via tankers, many countries face the imminent risk of their ...

EU Countries Told to Keep Refineries Running, Increase Biofuels Uptake

The European Commission on Tuesday urged refinery operators in the European Union to defer "non-emergency maintenance", while maintaining the bloc currently has enough energy supply despite the market disruption that has stemmed from the war in the Middle East. "At the same time, increasing the uptake of biofuels could help substitute for fossil petroleum products and alleviate pressure on the market", the Commission said in an online statement. The statement called on EU countries to "make timely and coordinated preparations to secure the supply of oil and refined petroleum products". "The European Union is well prepared, thanks to the obligation on EU countries to maintain oil stocks and to have contingency plans in response to security of supply incidents", the EU executive agency added. "EU countries are also contributing - approximately 20 percent - to the release of over 400 million barrels of emergency ...

Asia Turns to Russian Oil amid Mideast War

Energy-starved Asian nations are taking advantage of US sanction waivers to buy Russian oil to fill gaps caused by the Iran war. The Philippines took its first cargo of ESPO crude in nearly six years, while South Korea's first Russian naphtha shipment this year has arrived at Daesan port and is awaiting discharge, according to ship-tracking data. Other countries including Sri Lanka are in talks with Moscow over shipments. The war in the Middle East between the US, Israel and Iran has pitched Asia into a severe energy crunch, with the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz choking off supplies. The disruption has left the region's refiners desperate to secure alternative cargoes of oil and products. "There's no other choice," said June Goh, an analyst at Sparta Commodities. "Refineries that do not have much flexibility will be the first to look for ...

A Post-American Persian Gulf? The Iran War Will Accelerate the Region’s Economic Transformation

The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has created the largest disruption to global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies in modern history. Just before the war, roughly 20 percent of the world's oil supply and 20 percent of liquefied natural gas exports flowed through the Strait of Hormuz. Over the past month, traffic through the strait has collapsed, slowing to a daily average of five percent of its normal flows. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have sought to reroute crude oil shipments, but these other pipelines and avenues cannot make up the lost volume and are themselves vulnerable. And the damage to Ras Laffan, Qatar's main liquefied natural gas export facility, from an Iranian attack on March 18 means that the world's largest LNG producer may face reductions in its capacity for years to come. But the war's effects on ...

How China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz

The world's largest importer of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is, paradoxically, also one of the best placed to weather the waterway's closure. China consumes oceans of oil from the Gulf and imports roughly as much from the region as India, Japan and South Korea combined. In response to the closure of the Strait, officials across Asia are asking citizens to take shorter showers or work from home to save energy. In China, the ruling Communist Party's flagship newspaper is instead telling readers the country holds its own "energy rice bowl." While the editorial does not mention that Beijing has unofficially banned fuel exports to conserve supplies, the country is nonetheless more insulated than many of its neighbours thanks to years of policy measures that have reduced its vulnerability to energy shocks. China boasts an electric vehicle fleet about as large as ...

The Iran war could benefit China

Of the many excuses advanced for Donald Trump's attack on Iran, the assertion that it is part of a longterm plan to damage China is one of the silliest. Decapitating both Venezuela and Iran, that argument goes, not only deprives China of vital oil supplies, but erodes its global influence by exposing its alliances as empty: China may say it is your friend, but it won't help you out in a crisis. Leaving aside the Trump administration's treatment of its allies, if that was the view of China's position among White House staffers, then they were seriously mistaken. Venezuela and Iran did supply China with oil, but the arrangement was less significant for Beijing than for the suppliers who together made up only 17 per cent of the country's imported oil. It has spent years trying to lessen dependence on seaborne ...

It’s not just oil — the Iran war is disrupting helium and aluminum supplies. Here’s the impact.

The Iran war is not only disrupting the global energy market but is also threatening the world's supply of helium and aluminum, key materials used in products such as semiconductor chips, medical equipment and other everyday goods. Qatar, which accounts for roughly one-third of the world's helium supply, stopped producing helium this month following Iranian strikes on two liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities owned by state-run QatarEnergy. Helium is a byproduct of natural gas processing, and attacks on Qatar's liquefied natural gas facilities mean it could take years to rebuild production lines. Earlier this month, QatarEnergy told Reuters that the attacks wiped out 17% of the country's LNG export capacity, and that repairs could take three to five years. Those complications could add to the strains on the global economy beyond the impact of higher oil and gas prices, which so far have ...

Could the war in Iran reshape the future of energy?

The Iran war is causing the biggest energy shock in decades, with still no end in sight. As the conflict chokes off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of the world's daily oil supply, prices are spiking, countries are rationing supplies, and governments are scrambling to shore up alternative energy sources. Iran is also the second war in four years to disrupt world oil markets. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe spent years weaning itself off Russian energy and put an increased focus on renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, as well as domestic stores of fossil fuels. But as oil flowing from the Middle East becomes increasingly unreliable, some see a silver lining: could the war in Iran catalyze a broader shift toward green energy? Or will polluting fuels like coal make ...

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