Eight members of the consortium of influential oil producing nations known as OPEC Plus expressed concern on Sunday about the toll the war with Iran was taking on global oil supplies and energy infrastructure in the region.

The group, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, also said that it would raise its oil production quotas by 206,000 barrels a day next month, a largely symbolic move because Iran’s virtual blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has obstructed their shipping of oil to world markets.

“The committee stressed that any actions undermining energy supply security, whether through attacks on infrastructure or disruption of international maritime routes, increase market volatility,” the group said in its announcement. It added that “restoring damaged energy assets to full capacity is both costly and takes a long time”.

Several of the biggest oil-producing members of OPEC Plus have slashed oil production in the face of the severe shipping constraints.

By mid-March, Persian Gulf countries had taken an estimated 10 million barrels of daily oil production offline, or about 10 per cent of global supplies, the International Energy Agency said. It forecast that the cuts would deepen as the conflict wore on.

As of Thursday, international oil prices had climbed roughly 50 per cent, to $109 a barrel, since the US and
Israel started the war on February 28.

The eight members of OPEC Plus member countries involved in Sunday’s decision were: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman.

Aid groups’ alert

Aid groups warned that the war in West Asia upended their ability to get food and medicine to millions of people around the world in need, and that the suffering would deepen if the violence continued.

Not only has the conflict cut off vital shipping routes, creating a global energy crisis, it’s has also been disrupting supply chains for aid groups, forcing them to use costlier, more time-consuming routes.

Key pathways such as the Strait of Hormuz have been effectively shuttered and routes from strategic hubs such as Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi have also been impacted. Transport costs have spiked with higher fuel and insurance rates, meaning less supplies can be delivered with the same amount of money.

Steep US cuts to foreign aid already had hobbled many aid groups, who said the war was exacerbating the problem.

New York Times News Service and AP