Pockets of fuel shortages worldwide, continuing price spikes, and rising inflationary pressure are now more imminent amid the ongoing Iran war escalation and the continuing decline of global energy supplies, analysts said.
On Wednesday, the global benchmark for crude oil topped $101 per barrel for the first time since July and the U.S. standard for diesel rose above $200 per barrel—just the second time ever after a brief blip in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With oil flows again slowing to a crawl in the Strait of Hormuz bottleneck, central banks worldwide will again look at rate hikes to stem rising inflationary pressures, they said.
“The conflict has entered a new stage,” said Susan Bell, senior vice president for the Rystad Energy research firm. “Global stocks of diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel have drawn down an awful lot; they are now at critical low levels. They’ve breached levels we last saw after Russia first invaded Ukraine.”
The only solution is that prices rise more to force further “demand destruction” of oil and fuels, she said. “I hate to say it, but we need prices at the pump to go up higher to encourage consumers to make choices on their energy consumption. We need more (global) austerity measures,” Bell told Fortune.
