Ever since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the EU has been racing to secure new, reliable oil and gas supply chains. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz since February, when the US-Iran war began, is only deepening Europe’s energy crisis.
Shipping activity through the Hormuz has dropped over 90%, driving cumulative crude oil losses past 1 billion barrels by August. The crunch is driving up the cost of what little oil Europe still gets: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s address on April 13 confirmed that the EU’s fossil fuel import bill surged by over €22 billion without yielding a single additional unit of energy; von der Leyen also warned that supply disruptions were likely to persist even after any eventual ceasefire.
