US oil refineries are running at full tilt as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine choke global supplies of fuels, increasing the risk of outages at a time when prices are already rising sharply.

Refineries across the US are running at 96 per cent of their capacity, with those in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains regions operating at 100 per cent, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Washington has released about 77 per cent of the 172mn barrels from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve that it pledged in March to use as a cushion for the supply shock from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and to keep prices low.

The SPR, which is held in underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana, has fallen to 311mn barrels, its lowest level since 1983. Its operational minimum, below which further withdrawals risk damaging infrastructure and disrupting pipeline operations, is estimated at 180mn to 200mn barrels, according to industry analysts. Source: Financial Times

I remember the OPEC oil embargo that hit the US back in the early 1970s. Long gas lines, even an odd and even lottery type ability to bet gas based on the days of the week. Oil prices quadrupled across the country. In this day and age of civil unrest over pronouns and other such nonsense, I can only imagine the chaos which would result from that type of situation now. This has always been the fear that the action in Iran could produce another oil shortage of immense proportions. Trump, you had them, now it MUST be finished to stabilize oil markets and bring economies back on line. Rh