Joe Wallace

There was some minor damage done.

There are even bigger fields that might now be considered in the crosshairs.

Qatar's LNG exporting plant, the biggest in the world, is offline.

These are attacks that are interrupting operations across energy markets.

It's refined fuels, it's oil, it's liquefied natural gas, it's even helium.

Yeah, forecasting the oil price is a bit like putting your finger in the wind at the moment like this.

But Goldman Sachs, for example, put out some forecasts saying that if this goes on for some time, prices could shoot through $150 a barrel.

That would be a record in nominal terms.

It would need to go a bit higher to surpass the 2008 record in inflation-adjusted terms.

There will be a point at which high prices start to lead consumers to drive less, fly less, burn less fuel.

And that's the point at which maybe the rally will start to peter out.

Having said that, we've never had 20% of the world's oil supplies unable to reach world markets.

So it's a bit of a false error in trying to forecast exactly where this is going to top out.

Well, the US and other major economies have stockpiles of crude that they build up for emergencies.

And the Financial Times reported overnight that G7 ministers will be discussing a potential emergency release from those reserves this morning that could calm the market somewhat.

And China's built up a particularly enormous stockpile of crude over the past few years.

That's something that could come to market and cool prices significantly.

Then there's the potential for a military intervention in the strait to make it safe or to try to make it safe for ships to sail through.

President Trump mooted naval escorts last week.

No sign of those so far.