Markets

As the Middle East crisis drags on, the global energy landscape faces a severe supply crunch with both the US, the world's number one oil consumer, and China, the leading oil importer, simultaneously drawing down their strategic and commercial reserves.

Global crude oil futures experienced a highly volatile week as market participants balanced unstable geopolitical risks in the Middle East against shifting diplomatic signals from Washington.

Traders are balancing immediate diplomatic progress against structural inventory deficits for the coming week.

The ongoing war involving the US, Israel, and Iran has caused a massive structural collapse in Middle Eastern oil infrastructure.

The ongoing war between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran has severely crippled Persian Gulf shipping, forcing international energy buyers to look across the Atlantic for alternative supply.

Accelerating geopolitical instability, sweeping tariff disputes with the US, and a major supply crunch in Asia have fundamentally realigned Canada’s midstream oil strategy.

Following a Jan. 3, 2026 US military operation that ousted Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has made Venezuela's oil recovery a pillar of its Western Hemisphere energy doctrine.

Amid the Strait of Hormuz blockage, the global supply crunch has realigned Eurasian flows: Russia’s oil sector is struggling under Ukrainian drone strikes and local fuel shortages, while Kazakhstan is expanding non-Hormuz transit routes and launching massive upstream exploration.

The escalation of the US-Iran war on Feb. 28 has severely choked maritime transit through the Strait of Hormuz, historically the primary artery for high-sulfur crude flowing to Asian refining systems.

Amid the Strait of Hormuz blockage, the global supply crunch has realigned Eurasian flows: China’s oil sector is shifting away from spot market reliance by aggressively pulling back from prompt imports, drawing down massive commercial and strategic stockpiles, and accelerating a structural, spontaneous drop in domestic fuel consumption driven by vehicle electrification and mass transit.