Latest news with #Hormuz
Bloomberg
8 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Oil Could Spike to $90 If Strait of Hormuz Shut, Citigroup Says
Brent crude could jump to around $90 a barrel if the Strait of Hormuz is closed, according to Citigroup Inc., which added that a prolonged halt to shipping through the crucial waterway would be unlikely. 'Any closure of the Strait could lead to a sharp price spike,' analysts including Anthony Yuen and Eric Lee wrote in a note, citing the bank's current bullish case scenario. 'But we think the duration should be short, as all efforts would focus on a reopening, so that it should not be a multi-month closure.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Shell boss warns of ‘huge impact on trade' if Israel-Iran conflict escalates
An escalation in the Middle East conflict could have a 'huge impact on global trade', the boss of the oil company Shell has warned, as Donald Trump suggested the US could enter the air war between Israel and Iran. Shell, one of the biggest traders of oil and natural gas in the world, said it had contingency plans in case the conflict disrupted flows from the region. There is a risk that a blockage in the strait of Hormuz could shock the energy market. Speaking at an energy conference in Tokyo, Wael Sawan, the chief executive of Shell, said: 'If that artery is blocked, for whatever reason, it has a huge impact on global trade… We have plans in the eventuality that things deteriorate.' About a quarter of the world's oil trade passes through the strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Oil prices have risen over the last week as the conflict has escalated. On Thursday, Brent crude rose nearly 1% to more than $77 (£57) a barrel. 'What is particularly challenging right now is some of the jamming that's happening,' said Sawan, referring to the interference in navigation signals in and around the Persian Gulf. The growing risk in the area has also more than doubled the price to charter large oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz, according to figures from the data and analytics firm Clarksons Research, reported by the Financial Times. The daily price to charter a very large crude carrier, which is capable of carrying 2m barrels of oil, from the Gulf to China rose from $19,998 two days before Israel's attack on Iran last week to $47,609 on Wednesday. The sharp rise in costs far outpaces the 12% increase in the wider Baltic Dirty Tanker index over the same period. The index tracks crude oil tanker rates across the world. Meanwhile, global stocks slipped slightly on Thursday, as investors bought assets that are typically more stable during volatile periods such as gold and the US dollar. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The precious metal ticked up 0.1% to $3,372.36 an ounce, while the dollar rose against the euro, as well as the Australian and New Zealand dollars. Trump said on Wednesday he had not yet made a final decision about the US entering the war. 'I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do,' the president said. Kyle Rodda, a senior financial markets analyst at said: 'Market participants remain edgy and uncertain. Speculation remains rife – fed probably strategically by the Trump administration – that the US will intervene, something that would mark a material escalation and could invite direct retaliation against the US by Iran.' 'Such a scenario would raise the risk of a greater regional conflict, with implications for global energy supply and probably economic growth,' Rodda added.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Now it's Labour's turn to face the music when global events turn sour: ALEX BRUMMER
Yesterday's claim by Chancellor Rachel Reeves that Labour's number one mission is to 'put more money in the pockets of working people' does not stand up to scrutiny. Prices and the cost of living are rising, not falling – and there's no end in sight. Consumer price inflation was 3.4 per cent in May amid surging food prices, which were mainly a consequence of Reeves's tax-raising Budget in October. Producers and supermarkets have passed on the rocketing costs of employment, energy and business rates to consumers – costs which are hurting the very working people the Chancellor has pledged to help. April's inflation was fractionally higher at 3.5 per cent, but no one should assume that the worst is behind us. The conflagration in the Middle East has caused a sharp spike in market prices of oil, and that increase will quickly feed through to the petrol pumps. In the event of a blockage to the Strait of Hormuz – the Iranian coastline forms one side of this narrow but vital waterway for Arabian Gulf oil and natural gas supplies – the world could face a shock so debilitating it would end any progress in bringing down inflation. And if anyone believed that the Government's self-inflicted price rises – the inflation that came through higher energy and water bills, and stamp duty on home purchases – were at an end, they should think again. The impact that Angela Rayner's employment rights legislation will have on costs is not yet known. The Deputy Prime Minister's Bill is still trundling through the House of Commons, but it is certain to have a negative effect on the high street, where the cost of using part-time workers will increase sharply. It is striking that, in presenting the Spending Review last week, the Chancellor took credit for the four cuts in the Bank of England's key interest rate since Labour came to office. The reality is that, by loading £40billion of new taxes on business and citizens, she has raised the cost of living and made it more difficult for the Bank of England's interest rate committee – which is divided on the issue – to step up the pace of rate cuts from the present 4.25 per cent. It is all the more frustrating that several indicators used by the Bank have started to cool. The cost of services, for example, has dropped from 5.4 per cent in April to 4.7 per cent in May. That improvement, sadly, has been offset by the tax and spend agenda. Labour was keen to blame the Tories for allowing inflation to jump to 11 per cent in 2022. That, of course, was in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices rocketed. Now it is Rachel Reeves's turn to face the turmoil of events beyond her control, this time in the Middle East.
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Oil prices see a ‘considerable moderation'
CommSec's Tom Piotrowski claims oil prices have seen a 'considerable moderation' over the course of the last day and a half. 'In the day session, oil prices in the US lost about 1.7 per cent – they're down a lot more than that from their recent peak,' he told Sky News Australia. 'Part of the reason for that is that the traffic monitoring that is on offer in the Strait of Hormuz has suggested that there's only been a modest reduction in the amount of tanker traffic moving through that important chokehold.'
Wall Street Journal
7 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
What Israel's Attack Means for Oil Markets
Disruption to the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a further surge in oil prices. (Jon Gambrell/Associated Press)
