The United States will spare Iran’s energy infrastructure as it wages war with Israel against the Islamic Republic, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday. (Mar 8).
With oil prices rising dramatically, he told CNN that disruptions to the petroleum and gas industry will be short-lived – “worst case, that’s a few weeks. That’s not months”.
Israel attacked oil storage facilities Saturday in and around Tehran, sparking huge fires in the first such attacks reported since the war started last weekend. Wright seemed to downplay them.
“These are Israeli strikes, these are local fuel depots to fill up the gas tank,” Wright said.
He added, “The US is targeting zero energy infrastructure. There are no plans to target Iran’s oil industry, its natural gas industry, or anything about their energy industry.”
The war has all but shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil and about 20 per cent of liquefied natural gas usually transit.
Energy markets have been riled by this disruption, and oil prices shot up. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark for oil, rose 12 per cent just on Friday and is up 36 per cent in a week.
“They shouldn’t go much higher than they are here because the world is very well supplied with oil,” Wright told CBS. “There’s no energy shortage in all of the Western hemisphere.”
US insurer AAA said US gasoline prices at the pump have gone up 16 per cent in a week and diesel by 22 per cent.
The website GasBuddy says diesel fuel, used extensively in trucking, had not been this expensive since February 2023.