Market brief · Economy & rates

Saudi Pipeline Outage Hits an Oil Market Running Out of Buffers

The war in Iran that had to be over and won by the United States in about six weeks is now in its seventh month and the oil markets are starting to crack. Gone are most of the cushions the market had in the early weeks and months of the Middle East conflict. The oversupply from early this year has disappeared as oil on water was drawn down quickly when the Strait of Hormuz was closed to tanker traffic in March. Record stock releases led by the International Energy Agency (IEA) depleted strategic inventories in developed economies, including in…