Oil prices have skyrocketed since the conflict in Iran began. A single barrel was sold to the U.S. on Sunday for over $100, the same price hike that we first had in 2022. Even though this year it is a bit lower by only a few dollars.
Donald Trump, who campaigned heavily on cost-of-living concerns before the 2024 election, has brushed off the spike in prices. President Trump said, “There’s no need to worry about Iran’s war oil price surge, I have a plan for everything.”
Crude oil prices have surged by about 50% since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28. With the conflict between Iran, they brought shipping to an effective halt in retaliation, threatening about one-fifth of the global oil supply. Iraq is one of the biggest producers in the Petroleum Exporting Countries. They have also halted and cut production due to a backlog of barrels that have not been purchased, resulting from the effective closure of the waterway. The waterway is used to transfer the fresh oil through machines.
According to Al Jazeera, Iraq has been blamed for multiple attacks on energy facilities across the Gulf, including in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The strike hit four oil facilities and an oil products transfer centre in Tehran. The stocks in Asia fell on Monday due to the rising energy prices. The US stock market went down a lot because of the oil prices.
