Warning from Goldman Sachs comes as crude shipping through strait of Hormuz falls further than bank thought
Global oil prices could breach the $100 (£74) a barrel mark within days, and reach $150 a barrel by the end of the month, without a solution to the severe disruption in crude flows through the strait of Hormuz, Goldman Sachs has warned.
Oil exports via the vital trade route linking the world’s biggest oil producers to buyers in the global market have fallen further than the US investment bank had initially expected after the US-Israeli attack on Iran a little over a week ago.
Goldman Sachs had anticipated that flows of crude through the strait would fall to 15% of normal levels but Iran’s effective blockade on tankers passing through the narrow waterway mean that only 10% of oil cargoes that usually transit the trade route have been able to pass.
The bank, an influential oil commentator, warned that its analysis of trade flows last week suggested the impact was 17 times larger than the peak April 2022 hit to Russia production after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, which pushed the oil price to $110 a barrel.
