IEA Says Middle East War Causing Unprecedented Oil Supply Shock

Market stability depends on reopening Hormuz shipping lanes, the IEA said in its March market outlook.

Smoke and flames rise at the site of airstrikes on an oil depot in Tehran on March 7, 2026. Sasan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

The war in the Middle East is triggering the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on March 12.

Crude and refined fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen from about 20 million barrels per day (mb/d) before the conflict to “a trickle,” the agency said in its oil market report.