(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) By Una Galani HONG KONG, March 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The Middle East conflict will permanently alter how governments think about energy stockpiles. As countries converge on China's model of prioritising resilience over efficiency, national hoarding will become more common. It should keep demand and prices higher for longer. The U.S. and Israel's war against Iran has exposed an extreme divergence [Read more]

Removing oil sanctions on stranded Iranian oil would get supplies to Asia within three or four days, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Friday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday the U.S. may soon remove sanctions on Iranian oil stranded on tankers at sea, as Washington seeks to curb prices soaring over Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. "Within days, within three or four days, that oil will start to arrive at ports," Wright said in an interview with Fox [Read more]

If you want to buy a cargo of oil in Asia or jet fuel in Europe right now, you may have to pay a record price for it. Surging oil prices in physical markets - the trading place for oil on ships, rail cars or in storage tanks - have outpaced the already dizzying increases in benchmark futures markets, as refiners and traders across Asia and Europe are snapping up whatever barrels they can secure to plug the enormous supply gap caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. That supply gap is [Read more]

The United States issued a new general license on Thursday to replace an earlier waiver for the sale of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products loaded on tankers as of March 12, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The license, which expires on April 11, replaces and supersedes a similar 30-day sanctions waiver issued on March 12. While the main terms remain identical to those in the license issued earlier, Thursday's waiver specifically excludes transactions involving North [Read more]

Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that risks to oil prices remain skewed to the upside both in the near term and into 2027. The bank added that the persistence of several past large supply shocks highlights the possibility that oil prices could remain above $100 per barrel. Benchmark Brent crude surged above $119 a barrel on Thursday after Iran attacked energy facilities across the Middle East in response to Israel's strike on its South Pars gas field, marking a sharp escalation in a war that [Read more]

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday said in a post on X that President Donald Trump's administration has no plan to implement restrictions on oil and gas exports. (Reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones) [Read more]

An overnight jump in oil prices on the heels of a hawkish Federal Reserve policy meeting has further narrowed the window for the interest rate cuts President Donald Trump has demanded and upped the odds that his nominee to lead the U.S. central bank may need to tighten borrowing costs early in his tenure. A recent escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, with oil and gas facilities being directly targeted, drove benchmark crude prices above $118 a barrel before they fell back on Thursday [Read more]

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil is examining additional ways to relieve consumers from rising fuel prices due to the Iran war, including introducing a windfall tax on oil companies, his ministry said on Thursday. The money gained from the tax could be used to finance an increase in the commuter allowance, for example, among other measures being considered to lighten the load of low and middle income families, the ministry said. Germany is not facing an energy supply shortage, but as [Read more]