Natalie Kitroweth

From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittroweth.

This is The Daily News.

As the war on Iran enters its second week, concerns about a global energy crisis are growing.

In the last week, as Iran tightened its chokehold on one of the world's most vital shipping routes, and the Trump administration sent mixed signals about how long the war would last,

Oil prices have swung wildly.

It shot up like a geyser to $119 a barrel.

They surged to their highest levels in years.

Today, my colleague Rebecca Elliott on how the volatility has exposed just how much the world depends on the narrow waterway at the center of the growing crisis, the Strait of Hormuz, and how quickly shutting that strait down can throw global energy markets into utter chaos.

It's Wednesday, March 11th.

Rebecca, welcome to The Daily.

First time on the show.

Thank you for being here.

So we are coming to you because you are, I think it's fair to say, an undisputed authority on oil here at The Times.

And over the last week, the concerns over the war in the Middle East have grown to include not just a very real and dangerous conflict, but also building panic over a potential global energy crisis stemming from that conflict.

And all of that worry has focused on this one shipping route that butts up against Iran, which is the Strait of Hormuz.

So tell us about that strait.

Okay, and you said these tankers are backed up.

What's the fallout of that?

Which seem to change every day.

It seems like we get a new piece of information from Trump, sometimes contradictory information about how long this is going to go on.