NEW YORK, March 10. /TASS/. The closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz amid the US and Israeli military operation against Iran has caused the largest disruption in global oil supplies in history, CNBC reported citing data from the consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group.
"The conflict has not only taken offline a historically high share of global supply - it has simultaneously disrupted the primary holders of spare capacity," the TV channel quotes the Rapidan analysts as saying.
The analysts believe that as a result there is "a market with no meaningful cushion," that is, producers that could compensate for the decline in oil supply from the Persian Gulf countries.
Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted approximately 20% of global oil supplies. The largest disruption before this occurred during the 1956 Suez Crisis, which affected approximately 10% of global oil exports. The 1990-1991 Gulf War disrupted 9% of supplies.
According to forecasts by Rapidan Energy Group, the global oil market will have to resort to sharp price increases to reduce demand to achieve balance. The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve will not be able to meet all of the resulting demand from its reserves, the analysts believe.
On March 2, Major General Ebrahim Jabari of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, the elite unit of the Iranian Armed Forces) warned that the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world's oil exports passes, would be closed to shipping due to Israeli and US military action against Iran. On March 5, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that the strait was not closed, and that ships and tankers were not attempting to cross it for fear of attacks from both sides.