The International Energy Agency said Thursday that the US-Israeli war on Iran and its reverberating impacts across the region have sparked “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” with flows of crude and other fossil fuel products through the Strait of Hormuz plummeting and Gulf nations slashing production as they run out of storage space.
The agency noted in its monthly report on the state of the global oil market that “oil prices have gyrated wildly since the United States and Israel launched joint airstrikes on Iran on 28 February,” pointing to “disruptions to Middle Eastern supplies due to attacks on the region’s oil infrastructure and the cessation of tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,” which have “sent Brent futures soaring, trading within a whisker of $120/bbl.”
The IEA’s report came a day after the agency’s 32 member nations – including the US – agreed unanimously to release a total of 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to “address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East.”
“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” said the agency’s executive director, Fatih Birol.
The IEA assessment on Thursday came as oil prices surged again as Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. An estimated 20% of the world’s oil passes through the route each year.
Earlier on Thursday, Iraq – which has among the largest confirmed reserves of crude oil in the world – suspended all of its oil terminal operations after two vessels were attacked off the nation’s coast. NPR reported that Iran “took responsibility for attacking one of the tankers, which it said was owned by the US.”
The US and Israel have also bombed Iran’s oil infrastructure, choking Tehran with black smoke and spraying toxic rain that prompted warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The black rain and the acidic rain coming with it is indeed a danger for the population, respiratory mainly,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva earlier this week.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said Wednesay that “the potential for vast, predictable, and devastating civilian harm arising from strikes targeting energy infrastructure, including uncontrolled deadly fires, major disruptions to essential services, environmental damage, and severe long-term health risks for millions, means there is a substantial risk such attacks would violate international humanitarian law and in some cases could amount to war crimes.”
“Regardless of whether a military objective is cited to justify targeting energy infrastructure, under international humanitarian law all parties have a clear obligation to take all feasible precautions to reduce civilian harm and refrain from attacks that cause disproportionate death or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” said Morayef. “This includes any foreseeable knock-on, indirect adverse effects on civilians’ life and health, such as exposure to toxic chemicals.”
This article originally published by Common Dreams is republished under Creative Commons license.
How to keep the west in this new Forever War? China just hit the jackpot. This is so insane. China hit the jackpot of the century. My Western amigos. You loved Chump. You gave him a chance. China say thank you to you. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 you are now the loser.
A Yanqui air refuelling tanker has just been blown out of the sky over Iraq. Iraqi resistance groups have also announced they are beginning their campaign to permanently evict the Yanqui from their land. They asked politely once, and the US refused.
The US has chosen pain.
Wow 1 refueler was not blown out the sky, crashed. Once again more likely friendly fire or malfunction than the mad mullahs on their magic carpets.
After all the hype about the couple of US jets that crashed in Q8. No magic carpets just friendly fire !
Even though you are such a sought after international energy consultant, you will still miraculously find time to repeat the same low IQ talking point 999 times until it magically comes true. Good for you.
Because the 1 talking point is true, small banana.
Taco has his foot on the neck of Tiddly oil supplies !
No. I think he has his foot on your crotch and you are distracted and ecstatic.
I think you have a problem in the locker room.
“Mighty” old USA, unable to es cort ships through key maritime trade routes
“Mighty” old USA, unable to regime change Iran
“Mighty” old USA,, just started a COMPLETELY POINTLESS war like Ukraine, damaging its own economy and those of its allies in the process
“Mighty” old USA, its regional bases, radars, planes and storage facilities are getting DEMOLISHED by Iran
“Mighty” old USA, those “trillions of dollars” of Arab promises of investment are now VOID
“Mighty” old USA, its security umbrella has been exposed as a paper tiger, their presence brings INSECURITY to the host
“Mighty” old USA, expending munitions and interceptor stocks much faster than their production rates, 10 years of THAAD and 3 years of Patriots already gone in 2 weeks
“Mighty” old USA, controlled by Jewish swindlers in Club Epstein
The longer your rants, the better things are going in the destruction of the Axis of Resitance.
Hint US/4by2’s have total control of the skies, bombing at their leasure.
My dear bim bo. Converting coal to oil is expensive because no one has needed to scale up. I doubt $200 per barrel oil will be any cheaper which is what Europe and Japan will be paying soon. What a rancid loser you are.
But the USA will not.
China will
Small banana