How 50 days reshaped oil flows and $50bn in crude trade in Oil & Companies News 20/04/2026 Oil markets have lost more than $50bn in crude value in under 50 days. Conflict around Iran cut production and exports. More than 500 million barrels of crude and condensate have dropped out of the global supply since late February. Kpler values that missing volume against average crude prices near $100 a barrel during the disruption. Wood Mackenzie puts the scale in stark terms. Principal Analyst Iain Mowat equates the lost volume to five days of oil for the global economy. Separate calculations place it near a month of US oil demand, more than a month of Europe’s demand and about four months of fuel for international shipping. Hormuz reopened to commercial passage on April 17 after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi confirmed access during the ceasefire. Supply chains still show heavy strain. Kpler tracks global onshore crude inventories down about 45 million barrels in April. While outages have held near 12 million barrels per day since late March. How the shortfall built Gulf Arab producers lost about 8 million barrels per day of crude output in March alone. Kpler equates that volume to the combined production of Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Jet fuel exports from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman fell from 19.6 million barrels. And in February, to 4.1 million barrels across March and April to date. That missing jet fuel volume equates to about 20,000 return flights between New York JFK and London Heathrow. IEA records show the shock spread well beyond crude. Flows through Hormuz dropped to 3.8 million barrels per day in early April from more than 20 million barrels per day in February. IEA also flipped its 2026 supply outlook, projecting a 1.5 million barrels per day decline for the year instead of growth. Agency economists classify the disruption as the biggest oil supply shock in history. Kpler analyst Johannes Rauball calculates that heavier crude fields in Kuwait and Iraq need four to five months to regain normal operating levels. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol estimates the region needs about two years to restore lost energy output overall. Birol also notes that no new tankers were loaded in March and no fresh deliveries of oil, gas or fuels reached Asian markets during that period. Rystad Energy puts repair costs for Middle East energy-linked infrastructure as high as $58 billion, with oil and gas facilities alone accounting for up to $50 billion. Rystad identifies equipment procurement and labour availability as the main bottlenecks. Repair queues keep the aftershock alive. Missing March and April barrels need replacement, inventories need rebuilding and damaged refineries and gas assets need capital and specialist crews before supply normalises. Source: Arabian Business 2026-04-20 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share