Crude oil worth more than Rs 50 billion or Rs 4.63 lakh crore has been wasted in the last 50 days in the Middle East war. According to analysts and Reuters calculations, the world has lost more than $50 billion worth of crude oil that has not been produced since the Iran War began nearly 50 days ago, and the aftershocks of the crisis will be felt for months and even years to come.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the Strait of Hormuz is open following the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, while US President Donald Trump said he is confident that an agreement to end the Iran war will be reached "soon", although the timing is not yet clear. According to Kpler data, more than 500 million barrels of crude oil and condensate have been removed from global markets since the crisis began in late February – the largest energy supply disruption in modern history.

All this is equivalent to the loss of 500 million barrels of oil from the market.

Ian Mowat, chief analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said the market's loss of 500 million barrels of oil was the equivalent of a 10-week reduction in air travel demand worldwide, a 11-day suspension of road travel by any vehicle around the world, or five days of no oil supply for the global economy.

According to Reuters estimates, this is equivalent to about one month of oil demand in the United States, or more than a month of oil for all of Europe. Based on annual use of about 80 million barrels in fiscal year 2021, this is equivalent to about six years of fuel consumption for the US military. This is enough fuel to run the world's international shipping industry for about four months.

look at key facts

1. In March, Gulf Arab countries suffered a loss of approximately 8 million barrels per day of crude oil production. This is almost equal to the combined production of the world's two largest oil companies – Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
2. Jet fuel exports from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman fell from nearly 19.6 million barrels in February, to just 4.1 million barrels combined for March and April (so far), according to Kpler data.
3. According to Reuters estimates, this loss in exports would have been enough to replace about 20,000 round-trip flights between New York's JFK Airport and London's Heathrow Airport.
4. Johannes Roball, senior crude analyst at Kpler, said that since the conflict began, crude prices have averaged around $100 a barrel. In such a situation, due to the volume not being received, there has been a revenue loss of about 50 billion dollars.
5. This is equivalent to a 1 percent reduction in Germany's annual gross domestic product (GDP), or roughly the entire GDP of small countries like Latvia or Estonia.

It may take many years to manage

Even though Iranian Foreign Minister Arakchi said that the Strait of Hormuz is open, the pace of recovery of production and flow is expected to be slow. According to Kpler, global onshore crude inventories have fallen by about 45 million barrels so far in April. Since late March, production disruptions have reached nearly 12 million bpd.

Rawball said it could take four to five months for heavy crude fields in Kuwait and Iraq to return to normal operational levels, allowing stock withdrawals to continue until the summer. Damage to refining capacity and Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG complex means it may take years for the regional energy infrastructure to fully recover.