MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Oil production in countries of the Middle East dropped by 7.5 mln barrels per day (bpd) in total in March 2026, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its report.

"Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz continue to be limited causing oil storage to fill quickly in countries that rely on the waterway for exports. As a result, we estimate that Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain collectively shut in 7.5 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil production in March. We assess that production shut-ins will rise to 9.1 million b/d in April," EIA said.

"In this outlook, we assume the conflict does not persist past April and that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz gradually resumes. Under those assumptions, we expect production shut-ins will fall to 6.7 million b/d in May and return close to pre-conflict levels in late 2026," it added.