Oil futures touched $100 per barrel this week as Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, the waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transits. The International Energy Agency called the conflict the biggest-ever disruption to oil supply, and Iran's security chief has stated the war won't end soon.
They have a "much greater effect, typically, than a missile," and can inflict millions of dollars worth of damage for just a few thousand bucks a pop. And they're pretty effective too: naval mines have caused 77% of all U.S. Navy ship casualties since 1950, per the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.
The war in Iran has choked the world's supply of oil to a trickle, the International Energy Agency said in a new report released on Thursday. According to the organization, which tracks and helps set policy for the global energy sector, the widening conflict in the region has created an unprecedented disruption in the global oil market—one that will almost certainly force energy and other fuel-dependent costs to rise.
We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. The president didn't set a deadline for himself to do so-but in retrospect, an expedient one might have been useful. A little over a year after his declaration, the U.S. is heavily involved in a conflict in the Middle East that has left a hole in globally traded petroleum supply and caused U.S. gas prices to jump.
