\n The war between the United States and Iran has upended the global oil market by severely disrupting the flow of oil through two critical waterways: the Strait of Hormuz and, in recent weeks, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.\n <\/p>\n
\n Iran is now stepping up attacks on tankers transiting Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, curtailing the volume of oil exiting the region and keeping global crude prices north of $100 a barrel.\n <\/p>\n
\n There have been 12 reported attacks<\/a> on vessels in or near Hormuz in the past week, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors maritime security in the region. And, earlier this week, two cargo ships sank<\/a> after attacks by unknown projectiles in separate incidents.\n <\/p>\n \n Analysts say intensifying attacks by Iran are in response to the large quantities of oil that have managed to exit Hormuz in recent weeks. The US military has led an effective operation to ferry oil across the strait by assisting \u201cdark\u201d transits \u2013 tankers sailing with their transponders turned off and shuttling oil to ships waiting in the Gulf of Oman. Meanwhile, Iran continues to struggle to sail its own tankers through the waterway because of a US naval blockade.\n <\/p>\n \n The conflict, now in its eighth month, has also widened to include fighting between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. The Houthis have targeted Saudi oil tankers transiting the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and, in recent days, launched deadly strikes<\/a> on Riyadh\u2019s main international airport.\n <\/p>\n \n The crisis will have long-term ramifications on the global oil market, say analysts.\n <\/p>\n \n Oil-importing countries increasingly understand they must \u201cstructurally reduce their oil consumption\u201d to become less vulnerable to external shocks, Georg Zachmann, a senior fellow at think tank Bruegel, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n That, alongside other measures, could help \u201cshield (them) from this increasingly uncertain world,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The Bab al-Mandeb Strait became more strategically important after the war disrupted the neighboring Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>\n \n At its peak, around 4.5 million barrels of crude per day were exported from the Saudi Red Sea port of Yanbu, with the bulk \u2013 about 3 million barrels per day \u2013 exiting via Bab al-Mandeb, according to Richard Bronze, co-founder of Energy Aspects. But those flows \u201ccollapsed\u201d after the Houthi threat started escalating this summer, he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Johannes Rauball, senior crude analyst at Kpler, said that if the Houthis begin threatening ships from all countries, \u201cThis would really create another blow for crude markets. It would really push prices higher again, really tighten balances.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But after an attack last month by drones from inside Iraq on Saudi Arabia\u2019s East-West pipeline \u2013 which pumps crude toward the country\u2019s Red Sea ports \u2013 Riyadh pivoted quickly, stepping up crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz via the US military-assisted shuttle operation.\n <\/p>\n \n US President Donald Trump said Iran was probably behind the September attack, with Iran-backed militia groups known to operate inside Iraq. Iran\u2019s foreign ministry has \u201ccategorically denied\u201d the accusation. The East-West pipeline is now back online, according to several<\/a> reports<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Asian countries \u2014 the biggest buyers of Saudi oil \u2014 have borne the brunt of the crisis during the war, but they have adapted by cutting consumption<\/a>. China has also greatly reduced<\/a> its imports by tapping into its strategic reserves. The crisis has also pushed some Middle Eastern countries to explore new export routes through yet-to-be-built pipelines.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe longer this conflict drags on, the less leverage Iran actually has, because other countries are able to create bypass routes,\u201d Rauball, at Kpler, said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The war between the United States and Iran has upended the global oil market by severely disrupting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-885268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}