Gregory Schmidt at NYT:
Mounting fears that widening clashes in the Middle East could further disrupt energy supplies briefly pushed the price of oil to about $110 a barrel on Friday, while U.S. diesel prices rose above $6 a gallon.
Concerns over oil supplies, already heightened by the U.S. war against Iran, broadened this week with reports that the Houthi militia had seized a critical port on the Red Sea, presenting a new threat to shipping in the area.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, surged before easing to about $103 a barrel, after the International Energy Agency lowered its forecast for global oil demand by 2.5 million barrels a day this year, from a drop of 1.6 million barrels a day it predicted last month.
“The continuing impasse in negotiations between the United States and Iran delays the prospect of a normalization of flows into next year,” it said, adding that demand for oil is expected to rebound in 2027, “narrowly offsetting this year’s losses.”
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. standard, traded as high as $104 a barrel before falling to about $99.
But the jump in oil prices “pales in comparison with those for refined products, where market tightness is now most acute,” the I.E.A. wrote in its report.
The average price of a gallon of diesel fuel jumped to $6.06, according to the AAA motor club, a 60 percent rise since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. In response, Iran has effectively blocked most ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. During normal times, about a fifth of the world’s crude oil flows through the strait.
With assistance from the U.S. Navy, a few tankers have been able to get through, but Iran has signaled in recent days that it was willing to be more aggressive in exerting control over the strait.
