IEA: US-Israel-Iran war wiped ~250M barrels globally

Shafaq News- Paris

Global oil inventories fell by 246 million barrels in March and April as the US-Israeli war on Iran and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz caused one of the sharpest supply shocks in modern energy markets, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

In its monthly oil market report, the Paris-based agency warned that shrinking crude supplies were outpacing the decline in global demand, with inventories and available supply falling at a pace approaching 4 million barrels per day (bpd).

The conflict had already removed or stranded more than 1 billion barrels of Middle Eastern oil supplies, while disruptions linked to the war were expected to weaken global oil demand by around 420,000 bpd this year due to higher prices and slowing economic growth.

Oil markets have remained volatile since Iran tightened restrictions on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint carrying roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas flows. Brent crude prices rose more than 3% earlier this week to trade above $107 per barrel.

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