As the US and Iran block traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the world is running low on inventories of oil and petroleum products, presaging a market scenario too awful to contemplate. The global economy is showing signs of strain, but it is the citizenry of developing countries, especially those in Asia, who are facing the unthinkable as stocks deplete at a perilously rapid rate. Non-OECD economies, excluding China, consumed 42 million barrels per day in 2025, and many of them, particularly in Asia, suffered an overnight disappearance of the core crude and refined product supplies. Some alternative supplies were found, but the heavy lifting has come from tapping inventories, an attractive option given the ease and profitability. But inventories are finite, so consumption may have to be slashed drastically one country at a time. What has been said many times before bears repeating: The longer this confrontation lasts, the worse for all nations — bar none.