The US may no longer be able to play the balancing role that helped prevent oil prices from spiraling during the first round of Hormuz disruptions.

Inventories have been depleted, refining capacity has been damaged and the US no longer appears capable of acting as the world's supplier of last resort.

The recent disruption in the Middle East, including the closure and uneven reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, has exposed a shift in the global energy system’s principal…