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Mounting miscalculations and a retreat to narrow self-interest by major countries, including the United States and China, are threatening to turn the current conflict in Iran into a global crisis for the supply of refined oil products. Much of the media focus tends to be on the price of crude oil, with benchmark Brent crude futures jumping as much as 20% to $111.04 a barrel, the highest since July 2022, in early Asian trade on Monday. But while the leap in crude is dramatic, of more concern [Read more]

Oil prices surged about 20% in early trade on Monday, hitting their highest since July 2022, as the expanding U.S.-Israeli war with Iran fuelled fears of tighter supply and prolonged disruptions to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader, signalling that hardliners remain firmly in charge in Tehran a week into its conflict with the United States and Israel. Brent crude futures rose as much as $18.35, [Read more]

Iran's Assembly of Experts has named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country's new supreme leader, state media reported on Sunday. Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with close ties to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, had long been viewed by elements of Iran's ruling establishment as a potential successor to his father, who was killed after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran. Although Iran's ruling ideology frowns on the principle of [Read more]

Trump administration officials on Sunday defended a decision to temporarily lift some sanctions on Russian oil and predicted that a sharp increase in gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war would last only weeks. Appearing on multiple TV talk shows, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said a waiver issued last week to allow Indian purchases of Russian oil would alleviate pressure on the global market. "It's a 30-day pause to allow, which is [Read more]

Iraqi oil production from its main southern oilfields has fallen by 70% to just 1.3 million barrels per day as the country is unable to export oil via the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war, three industry sources said on Sunday. Production from the fields stood at around 4.3 million bpd before the war. "Crude storage has reached maximum capacity and the remaining output after the major cut will be used to supply the country’s refineries," said an official with the state-run Basra Oil [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran would be "hit very hard" on Saturday and that he was considering widening the areas and groups of people being, targeted, without providing details. "Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran's bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time" Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He also noted that Iran had [Read more]

Kuwait has implemented a precautionary reduction in crude oil production and refining throughput after the ongoing attacks by Iran against the country and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said on Saturday. The cuts are another disruption for the global energy industry because of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, as oil and gas storage at facilities in the Middle East Gulf rapidly fill. Oil fields in Iraq have already cut production and Qatar declared force [Read more]

Azerbaijan said it had prevented several acts of "terrorist" sabotage planned by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including a plot to attack a major oil pipeline running through the South Caucasus to Turkey. The targets included the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan, an Ashkenazi synagogue, and a leader an ancient Jewish community in Azerbaijan called the Mountain Jews, according to a State Security Service statement cited by the Azertag [Read more]