Well, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has come to a virtual standstill since the U.S.

and Israel attacked Iran almost two months ago.

Around 20 percent of the world's petrochemical supply normally moves through the strait.

As tanker traffic drops sharply and attacks on oil and gas facilities continue, the ripple

effects are growing by the day.

For more, on the impact, we turn now to

Karen Young. She is a senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy

and her senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. Karen Young, thank you for being with us.

Thank you. I know you told our team about 600 million barrels of oil haven't reached

their expected destinations since the end of February. How does that figure compare to previous

oil supply disruptions like the 1973 oil embargo or even the 1990 Gulf War?

This is the largest supply shock to energy markets that we have ever experienced.

So there really is no comparison.

And even to the COVID pandemic, when we had such a sharp contraction in demand,

this is not the same, right?

Because we still need this oil. We're expecting it, and it's not, the deliveries are now not happening. So the ships that were on their way at the end of February have basically arrived to their destinations, and there are not resupplies coming. So the longer that the blockade and the threat of violence within the strait continues,

we sort of deepen this deficit of oil supply that is going to countries and destinations around the world.

Beyond this deficit, as you put it, of oil and jet fuel, what's your timeline for when consumers in the U.S. and Europe will feel the

impact on things like grocery prices and consumer goods? Well, we're already feeling it, but the

geographic impacts, you know, it has been varied. And we've already seen really sharp

contractions in Asia and East Asia, and particularly in countries that don't have

large stockpiles or governments that don't have the financing to subsidize the increased

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