The Oil Prices You See Don't Tell the Market's Real Story
Three weeks into the Iran war, theres an ever-growing gap between the price of oil futures and supplies that determine costs for consumers in the real world.
The global Brent benchmark has jumped about 50% to around $110 a barrel as the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on Middle East energy facilities choke supplies. But the cost of almost every physical barrel is surging even more, as tight supplies boost prices of products that consumers actually use, like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
The US has almost exhausted the arsenal for stopping prices from rising, given this degree of uncertainty, if the strait isnt opened and the uncertainty of physical damage isnt removed, Christof Ruhl, global advisor at Crystol Energy and a former BP Plc economist, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. So there isnt much they can do.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-20/the-oil-prices-you-see-don-t-tell-the-market-s-real-story