The International Energy Agency said Thursday that the US-Israeli war on Iran and its reverberating impacts across the region have sparked “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” with flows of crude and other fossil fuel products through the Strait of Hormuz plummeting and Gulf nations slashing production as they run out of storage space. The agency noted in its monthly report on the state of the global oil market that “oil prices have gyrated wildly since the United States and Israel launched joint airstrikes on Iran on 28 February,” pointing to “disruptions to Middle Eastern supplies due to attacks on the region’s oil infrastructure and the cessation of...

Events in the Middle East during February and March 2026 again disrupted the flows of shipping trade to the eastern and western spheres of the international system. Given that the global economy is maritime based and rests on secure and predictable flows of goods by sea, the armed attacks on Iran and their maritime spillovers sharply underlined the vulnerability of global maritime trade and its value, which is embedded in safe and predictable deliveries of goods in the interconnected global system. Although armed attacks caught much of the attention, a more subtle development was playing out as shipping lines and insurers again contemplated the convenience of the...

The International Energy Agency said Thursday that the US-Israeli war on Iran and its reverberating impacts across the region have sparked “the largest...

Events in the Middle East during February and March 2026 again disrupted the flows of shipping trade to the eastern and western spheres...