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The end of the oil weapon
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1973 oil crisis, triggered by an Arab-Israeli war. Much has changed since to diminish the power of oil as a political instrument.
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The days when global energy markets were held to ransom by a handful of oil-producing states are over.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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In every previous Middle East war, the price of oil jumped when the guns started firing, and often remained high while hostilities lasted. It could hardly be otherwise given the commodity’s critical importance as the bloodline of the global economy and bearing in mind the physical vulnerability of the Middle East oil industry, with its combustible extraction rigs, easily destructible pipelines and cumbersome oil tankers manoeuvring awkwardly through narrow and often contested sea routes.
Not this time, however. For, apart from an initial, minor, and brief uptick when Hamas surprised everyone with its bloody attack on Israel on Oct 7,
