Several European nations and Japan have issued a joint statement saying they would take steps to stabilise energy markets, a day after several strikes on energy facilities in the Gulf region sent oil and gas prices soaring amid the United States-Israel war on Iran.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint statement on Thursday expressing their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the [Hormuz] Strait.”
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They did not specify what those efforts may entail but urged for “an immediate comprehensive moratorium on attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations”.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) last week authorised a coordinated release of its members’ strategic petroleum reserves, the largest in its history, in an attempt to counter rising global energy prices. “We will take other steps to stabilise energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output,” the statement said.
Markets have been hammered since the start of the war on February 28, with Tehran hitting sites across the Gulf and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas flows.
European leaders have rejected demands by United States President Donald Trump to help ensure freedom of navigation in the Gulf’s key oil chokepoint by deploying warships as part of a naval coalition.
Thursday’s joint statement came ahead of a long-scheduled White House meeting between Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, aimed at burnishing the decades-old security and economic partnership between Washington and its closest East Asian ally.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said before the meeting on Thursday that he would expect that Japan, which gets 95 percent of its crude oil supplies from the Gulf, would want to ensure its supplies are safe.
Takaichi has sought to move Japan away from a pacifist constitution imposed by Washington after World War II, but with the Iran war unpopular at home, she has so far not offered to assist in clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
The Japanese prime minister told parliament on Monday that Tokyo had received no official request from the US, but was checking the scope of possible action within the limits of its constitution.
Soaring energy prices
Major economies have been scrambling to cushion the impact of soaring energy prices after the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces.
Concerns were compounded on Wednesday when Iran hit the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on its South Pars gas field.
QatarEnergy reported “extensive damage” from Iranian missiles in Ras Laffan, which produces about 20 percent of the world’s LNG supply and plays a major role in balancing Asian and European markets’ demand for the fuel.
The company’s CEO, Saad al-Kaabi, said Iran’s attacks damaged facilities that produce 17 percent of QatarEnergy’s LNG exports and that it would take three to five years to repair.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said Iran’s claims that it is targeting US bases are “unacceptable and unjustified”, as the attack on Ras Laffan shows that it is targeting energy infrastructure that is vital for Qatar and the entire world.
Energy prices have soared and stocks sunk amid the region’s protracted instability, reigniting fears over global supplies and inflation as well as the likely damage to economic growth.
European gas prices were up 25 percent and Brent crude oil futures nearly 6 percent at $113 at 13:00 GMT on Thursday after briefly surging about 10 percent. European gas prices have leapt by over 60 percent since the war began on February 28.
James Meadway, co-director of the Verdant economic policy think tank, said this would not be “a temporary blip” in the prices of oil and gas.
“In addition to the Strait of Hormuz being blocked, we now have a severe disruption to the basic production of oil and gas,” Meadway told Al Jazeera.
