Xavier Radio Ug News 24 7
The price of Brent Crude Oil remains volatile as a result of the war in the Middle East, surging to around $109 dollars a barrel.
Iran’s Revolutions Guards have threatened to target oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.
This after Israel’s attacked on the world’s largest natural gas field in the Persian Gulf, which is shared between Iran and Qatar.
The latest escalation targeting energy infrastructure in the region has heightened concerns around the world as energy costs surge.
Iran has also confirmed attacks at its oil facilities at Asaluyeh in the southwest region of the country.
What’s clear is that the targeting of energy facilities in the region will compound the supply disruptions being experienced amid reduced tanker and cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Some forecasts see the price of Brent Crude Oil reaching $120 a barrel in the coming days amid continued disruptions.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency indicates that the Revolutionary Guard would target various refineries, a gas field and petro-chemical complexes in neighbouring Gulf states, calling them legitimate and prime targets for counter attacks, as the UN World Food Programme warns that the war could cause the worst disruptions to humanitarian work since the COVID-19 pandemic.
WFP’s Deputy Executive Director, Carl Skau, says, “Our supply chains may be on the brink of the most severe disruption since COVID-19 and the Ukraine war back in 2022. Our shipments of life-saving food are being affected by the squeeze on trade. It is taking us longer to deliver by sea and our costs have increased. Our shipping costs are up 18% so far and we have thousands of trucks on the roads everyday, and these are now running on much more expensive fuel due to the oil prices. Higher costs mean that we can buy less food or provide less cash to beneficiaries.”
With some of the world’s most vulnerable regions of particular concern with the Agency warning that the war could push millions of people into acute hunger by June.
Skau adds, “The spike in global food and fuel costs could leave millions of families priced out of staple foods, particularly in import-dependent countries like sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In fact, our analysis projects that if the Middle East conflict continues through June, an additional 45 million people could be pushed into acute hunger by price rises. This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record, and it’s a terrible, terrible prospect. We have been forced to cut life-saving food rations for people in famine conditions in Sudan. We are only able to support one in four acutely malnourished children in Afghanistan, which is now the world’s worst malnutrition crisis.”
This as the US administration moved to loosen sanctions on the sale of Venezuelan oil in an effort to ease market pressures and energy prices.
US companies would now be allowed, with some limitations, to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company as part of efforts to boost global oil supplies.
www.sabcnews.com, https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/us-israel-war-on-iran-pushes-up-oil-prices/
