00:00Oil lowered today as the U.S. announces it's weighing a range of options to address the spike
00:04in oil and gas prices amid the war in Iran. I'm joined now by Bloomberg Asia energy reporter
00:09Stephen Stepchinski. Stephen, what options does President Trump have to try and tame oil prices?
00:17You know, there are a number of different levers that he could try. There's one which is insurance.
00:23He could try to provide some sort of insurance guarantees for ships to go through the Strait
00:27of Hormuz. That's been one issue. Why we've seen essentially collapse in traffic against a key waterway,
00:33which which is about one fifth of global oil supply goes through. Another thing that you could try as well
00:39is providing naval escorts. That is something that would help with the security issues. Right.
00:45It's not just insurance. Insurance prices are rising. That's expensive for ships. But also ship owners, especially ones
00:52that that are in Asia, like the Japanese, as well as even the Chinese, have asked their ships to stop
00:56going
00:57through the Strait because they're a bit worried, honestly, about potentially getting hit by by by anybody.
01:04Really. I mean, there have been a few moments over the last few weeks where ships have been targeted.
01:09There have been explosions. So there is that ongoing risk existing there. So some sort of naval guarantee as well.
01:15Another lever is a coordinator release of oil reserves. The U.S. has a strategic oil reserve
01:22that they could potentially tap if there gets to that level as well. The Japanese and other countries do.
01:29There are Japanese refiners who are trying to push their government to consider tapping their reserves.
01:34But one thing that the Trump administration did over the last 24 hours is they provided a waiver for Indian
01:39buyers to buy Russian oil that's already on the wire already on the water. It's a one month waiver
01:44for them to buy up that supply. It's kind of you think of that as like a floating storage. Right.
01:49They're already on the water. They're there soaking it up. The administration said that this was a temporary measure
01:54to help ease the supply situation in India specifically because India does rely quite heavily on the Middle East
02:00for oil that goes through the Strait of Hormuz. So that's something that's positive for them.
02:05And, you know, theoretically could tame the tame the prices slightly. Although analysts have said that ultimately won't have
02:13that large of an impact because it is still, again, a temporary measure. That all being said, you step back
02:17and you look at the situation. Anything that the Trump administration does, it has to be more than lip service.
02:22It has to be actual action. So if we're looking at insurance, naval guarantees, releasing the strategic reserves,
02:29I think the market is actually waiting for something to happen before we start pricing it in and seeing prices
02:34fall further.
02:34ords
02:35you
02:35you
Comments