Oil Reserves Buy the World Time (But Not Much) || Mar. 12, 2026
The International Energy Agency has authorized a record 400 million-barrel release from global oil reserves to offset the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz caused by the Iran war. That is enough to cover the short falls caused by the Iran war for about a month.
Once emergency reserves have been used, global rationing of oil must follow, but that’s a whole new can of worms. Even if the war ends soon, production will take months, and probably years, to spin back up.
Comments (37)
One month. That's right about the time the 40 days of mourning end.
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So with USA being the dominate sea power with 2 carrier battle groups in Middle East and we can’t stop Iran from still shipping oil and blocking the strait. Peter how is this possible?
Because the US is casualty-adverse. That's why we've been half-assing every war since Korea.
Khomeini started this war in 1979. Wake up !
Well… By your logic… George Bush Sr. started this war when as the head of the CIA, he deposed the democratically elected premier, and installed Shah Pahlavi in power.
35% bump in my heating oil price for the fill-up I got today over January's fill-up. $5.00 vs. $3.70.
Not so much for natural gas. There are no real long-term strategic natural gas reserves for most countries. The US and China have some, but even those will last only a couple of months. Three weeks for Japan, none for India. It will take weeks to months to resume production, as most gas facilities in the Gulf have been shut down. You think oil prices are high? Watch natural gas prices!
With the enriched uranium that Iran has, couldn't they whip up a simple dirty bomb fairly easily?
Thats the problem, yes, they dont care! Period! Hmmm... nasty people .. this will go on for a while what with China and Ruskies provideing missiles and other stuffs too. Trumps idea was to beat them first. But will he? Time'll tell. Even the Psychics said he'd incurr WW3. LOOKS like they were right on that one too. Iran can therefore now only be beaten. Religeous gets tribes nowhere except all dead. Crazy isnt it. We used to say here when we had the IRA problem that you had to break them before you could sit down with them to have more meaningful talks. True but they like Putin dont care anyway. The leaders all want crime to win. Nasty shock Guys.
Morbidly interesting to see who got caught with their pants down with a Hormuz closure. Japan and SK highly dependent but also highly prepared. And holy smokes Australia, NZ downstream from Asia even! Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh already rationing. And my home state of California not far behind, energy island that it is.
On a note unrelated to the video topic how is it that one day Peters in a snow filled Colorado and then today it looks like totally different
Different elevations?
And cheeto has another month meaning he can probably extend the war and stay out of jail with the Epstein files
And Bibi, too. His engineered war in Gaza was so he could also avoid prosecution.
From what I read, the GLOBAL release "flow" per day from all SPRs is only 1.2-1.4 MBPD and will take up to two weeks to start coming to market. Doesn't really change all that much, no?
Plant your gardens everyone!
Donnie is on a roll, anybody notice? Minnesota, Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, now Iran. He can't stop or it all catches up to him. We're fkd...
Very scary indeed. Hey, MAGA, is this what you voted for?
I’ll have to save up for a horse.
Nice one. Cheers. God help us all. Let alone the horse. Iran would use its nukes straight away re their Religious Delusions. Thats the danger here, or should I say there. They too are mainly like Maga, too. The people of Iran have more brains than these brainwashed religious mullah etc ... hypocrites. ( whom will put us back to the 13th or earlier century if they use their new found nukes too. ) That is the real danger we cannot afford to risk as there is no going back after such an event. Learn that well.
Considering the United States and Israel have committed what looks to be like multiple 9/11 sized attacks on Iran civilians, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the Will to keep this going until either a formal retreat by the United States and Israel which can only be guaranteed by a bunch of major third powers intervening or until November to shift the political dynamic. Never underestimate the willingness of the people to sacrifice for justice or vengeance
Thats the Mullahs problem exactly Kowalski - they DON'T know when to stop.
ie the kids born today need to get beyond university to sustain it all or it all implodes back in on itself yet again.
I am not Maga, I am British Labour Party Supporter.
I smell the tanker wars theater being set
It’s still a mess, isn’t it? DoE just said it will take them 120 days to deliver the barrels.
My first thought was China thinking, good, bleed ‘em dry and look toward Taiwan but the Chinese only have a few billion barrels in reserve, right? Coordinate with Russia after that? No way the US is putting boots on the ground, at least not before November. Isn’t corporatocracy grand…if wiser heads could prevail and create a more equitable world governance system… Homo sapiens existential threat is not getting along.
Trump will put boots on the ground if he thinks the republicans will lose congress in November. Then he'll cancel/delay elections based on "wartime emergency" or similar phrase. Otherwise he'd be impeached and he knows it.
Instead of building tourist traps, maybe the sheiks should stick to business and build pipeline infrastructure, including fail-safe backups. Also, some kind of regional or even international control of the Persian Gulf would seem like a wise goal to eliminate the influence of terrorists, criminals, and pirates on maritime traffic. As an aside, the Chinese need Persian Gulf oil more than we do; maybe they should get involved in a helpful way. In general, of course, this is a big mess, but it seems to me it's not our job to fix the ME alone, while the rest of the world stands around nitpicking, whining, and complaining.
The Iranian Regime are Crooks and Terrorists too. Dont you see that? Thats why they are NOT an elected Gov of the people, by the people, for the people, Lincoln 1861-3 speeches etc ...
Peter, any thoughts about what a slowdown in helium production will mean for global chip manufacturing? Will this also be a force majeure type event in that industry? Would that create a bull whip inflationary type supply chain event in industries relying on those inputs? I work to try and explain these issues to my middle school students, thank you.
We are falling into Iran's trap that they have been planning for decades. They already have enough material for nuclear bombs, nothing sophisticated, simple like the ones we dropped on Japan. China and Russia are acting weak where they are strong, and strong where they are weak. We are recreating the same conditions for China and Russia as we did for Japan before they retaliated at Pearl Harbor. Russia now gets to do with Iran what we did with Ukraine. Ultimately, we are falling into the commie's trap; hopefully, the US will stay intact with its current constitution.
The Iranians do have about 1,000 pounds of 60% enriched uranium, but it takes 90% to make a bomb. Yes, that could be done in a few weeks. But, you need vehicles, missiles, to carry the bomb and making the trigger and other components are quite tricky. Anyway, it's not a done deal. Regardless, MAD still works as far as I know.
The Iranian Regime are bluntly crooks whom become IRGC etc.., they murdered the business owners and hung them in 1979 whilst putting out this calm religious nice guys image but they are trained by Putin and his Ilk underneath. ONLY ( MY VIEW) a ground invasion will clear them. They need to be routed as again its Commies vs the West ( the rest of us,- as now usual in our world ) and its time someone like yourself Pete let all know what really went on back then and how we and they got here where we all are today. The Khomeini etc took on all the orphans, whom bwcame the Mullahs Pretorian Guard in exchange for food and shelter. It really is a most horrible regime and sadly I dont myself see them changing that any time soon. So, its us or them guys. What is it going to be? Periferal wars won't kill it and Putin knows this. Like with Hitler and Boney we need to stop playing with it and finish it, once and for all. Or they win, by global attrition, instead. Them and Us has got to go, or We All will instead... See that, do you? Great work Pete, will buy your books one day, keep it coming, you matter. Thank You.
They ( Iran, aka 8,000 missiles, and thats a cons estimate of some years ago too ) are attacking the world left right and centre atm. They are not 'quiet" anything. 4th oiler in the world they control it too. In 6 mo you will have learnt why if not learning it now already. Iran has a warmongering past too. They even attacked Saddam Hussein way back when. Learn your history properly. Don't guess re weak reporting minded bad journalism assumptions. You will learn these eventually. Iran has been anything but. See T H Lawrence. ( Lawrence of Arabia film ?))). You'll get there.
I’m sorry, I couldn’t pay attention after you brought up Yanbu, the film sound track started playing in my mind, which makes doubly no sense because they didn’t even include Yanbu in the film but whatevs: https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/saudis-restore-lawrence-of-arabias-home/amp