Not that long ago, the closure of one of the world’s most important trade routes would have pushed households’ energy and fuel bills sharply higher.
So why, then, in the midst of a crisis in the Red Sea, with tankers of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) forced to take much longer routes to their destinations, have energy prices barely reacted — or even declined — over the past few weeks?
“The (oil) market basically doesn’t get as excited as it used to because it knows that most of these tensions don’t really, necessarily lead a reduction in supply,” Homayoun Falakshahi, a senior oil analyst at data provider Kpler, told CNN.
Now, however, analysts say economic factors — weaker demand in countries such as China and Germany, ample oil and gas supply — are superseding concerns about violence in the Middle East. For now, at least.
Here is some recent gas price data for New York.
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