Oil extends ten day run over $80 a barrel: comment

“We’re starting to see the wider impacts of continuing high oil prices across economies as the crisis in the Middle East continues. Here in Britain, petrol prices and mortgage rates are rising, promising yet more cost of living pain for ordinary people off the back of another fossil fuel crisis even as families are still feeling the after effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that cost the UK over £180bn in four years. [1]

“With Iran’s new leader pledging to keep the Strait of Hormuz blocked, these impacts are set to worsen. Supplies of not just oil, but natural gas, bunker fuels for shipping, feedstocks for fertiliser such as sulphur and ammonia and other products will all be affected, meaning that the economic costs will intensify. With the CCC calculating that the costs of the net zero transition will be smaller than a single fossil fuel price shock [2], the lesson is clear that we need to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels to heat our homes, fuel our transport and generate electricity, if we are to avoid these crises in future.”