Iran war is creating largest oil supply disruption in history, IEA says

DUBAI — As fresh attacks target vessels in the Gulf and energy sites in the region, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday that the war in the Middle East is causing the “largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.”The flow of crude and oil products through the Strait of Hormuz – ordinarily the conduit for around a fifth of daily global oil production – has reduced to “a trickle,” the IEA said in its monthly oil report.The agency called the waterway, which links the Arabian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, “the world’s most critical oil transit chokepoint.”As Gulf countries have few other ways to export their crude and with their storage tanks filling up, those nations have cut total oil production by at least 10 million barrels per day, the report said, warning that in the “absence of a rapid resumption of shipping flows, supply losses are set to increase.”The IEA also projected that global oil supply would plunge by 8 million barrels per day this month, with output cuts in the Middle East partly offset by higher production from producers elsewhere.“Since the start of hostilities on 28 February, most of the seven Gulf countries – Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Iran – that depend on the Strait for exporting crude have to some degree substantially reduced production,” the report said.