#oil-dependence

#oil-dependence

After 46 days of rising prices, the cost of both petrol and diesel across the country has finally begun to drop very slightly. Wholesale prices are still lower, so we're hopeful there will be further reductions amounting to several pence a litre in the coming days.

In Europe, we have maybe six weeks or so (of) jet fuel left. If we are not able to open the Strait of Hormuz ... I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel.

In the past two months, conflict in Iran has created an energy crisis - the latest in a series. Oil prices spiked within days of the start of US, Israeli and Iranian bombing in the Gulf region on 28 February.

A 'workable system' of transit and shipowner confidence in the security of the transiting vessels is essential. This includes availability of insurance for transiting vessels, facilitating commercial trade financing, and sustained outbound vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz.

The IEA sees global oil demand falling by 80,000 barrels per day this year, compared with a projected year-on-year rise of 640,000 bpd in its previous monthly report.

The world's top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, with Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, and ExxonMobil among the biggest beneficiaries.

In the first two weeks of the war, there has been a surge in the number of Americans looking to save money on energy-by asking for quotes on home solar systems and looking up electric vehicles online. We can expect similar trends in other countries. In India, where many kitchens depend on increasingly scarce and costly liquefied petroleum gas cylinders, consumers are racing to buy induction stoves.

The price of oil has jumped again to above $100 a barrel after President Trump said the US would blockade the Strait of Hormuz from Monday. The US president threatened to stop tankers from entering or leaving the key oil and gas shipping lane in response to the failure of talks with Iran.

This quick recovery reflects the high operational resilience and crisis management efficiency of Saudi Aramco and the kingdom's energy ecosystem as a whole, thereby enhancing the reliability and continuity of supplies to local and global markets.

The war in the Middle East is exposing how dependent the world is on a handful of strategic chokepoints. The Strait of Hormuz a narrow waterway in the Gulf is closed. The longer this goes on, the faster the global energy map could be reshaped.