HOUSTON — Global energy leaders have been jolted by the enormity of what the U.S.-Israel war with Iran means for their business — and they’re not liking what they’re seeing.
It’s the second time in four years that top White House officials have taken the stage at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference to plead with producers to ramp up their drilling to cover supply disruptions from war-driven oil and natural gas price shocks. But unlike the coordinated international response to counter Russia’s 2022 attack in Ukraine, the Middle East war has drawn little support from allies and has seemed disturbingly ad hoc, industry executives said, leaving the industry feeling unsure on how to react.
“We’ve not seen anything like this — there’s been no disruption of this scale in the past,” Gareth Ramsay, chief economist at oil and gas giant BP, told the conference. “It’s every oil analyst’s study piece or worst nightmare — one that we never thought would happen.”
The energy market fallout is becoming political as well. Trump’s approval rating fell to 36 percent amid the public’s anger over the war and the steep jump in gasoline prices, according to a Reuters poll released Tuesday. The dissatisfaction threatens to doom Republicans’ attempts to keep control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
