Live updates: Kuwaiti tanker laden with oil attacked as Trump again threatens to blow up Iran’s energy facilities
It will be “incredibly difficult” for the oil market to recover if the conflict in the Middle East continues through April, an expert in Middle East energy said today, warning of further price rises to come.
“We don’t see any kind of de-escalation despite the comments coming out of the White House,” Amena Bakr, head of Middle East Energy and OPEC+ Insights at Dubai-based Kpler told CNN’s Brian Abel.
“We have 260 million barrels that are off the market, and these are barrels that haven’t been produced,” she added, emphasizing that oil companies have been forced to abandon production while the Strait of Hormuz remains inaccessible, as they have no way to store the volumes typically produced.
Bakr explained that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has made an effort to counter the sudden reduction in oil distribution by releasing stock reserves, but stressed that this was not enough to sustain global demand.
“If this conflict extends until the end of April, our calculations show that we’re going to be reaching a loss of barrels of 570 million barrels,” the energy expert said, “It will be incredibly difficult for recovery to happen.”
“We have a massive supply shock and that’s going to catch up,” Bakr said, warning that if the conflict continues prices would rise to $150 per barrel or more.
