Middle East Conflict Drives Global Fuel Crisis, Not Ukraine Strikes

The global fuel crisis is primarily driven by reduced oil supplies from the Middle East and refining capacity shortages, not Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian refineries, an expert claims.

Director at A-95 Consulting Group Serhii Kuyun told Radio NV that Western appeals for Ukraine to halt its strikes on Russian oil refineries fail to consider the far larger impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He noted that Ukrainian strikes are estimated to have reduced global supplies of Russian oil and petroleum products by about 1 to 1.5 million barrels per day, while the crisis surrounding Iran has disrupted 10 to 12 million barrels per day.

Kuyun added that without the conflict in Iran, the absence of Russian diesel fuel on the global market would have gone virtually unnoticed. He attributed the shortage of oil refining capacity to dozens of European refineries closing during the COVID-19 pandemic and many remaining plants being aging and inefficient.