West Asia tensions may disrupt oil supplies if attacks reach Hormuz Strait

There is a 160-year history entwining wars and oil prices. During the American Civil War, which raged from 1861 to 1865, oil prices rose more than six-fold. During subsequent conflicts — two world wars, several conflicts in West Asia, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the increases were relatively muted, but prices still more than doubled.

The current conflict, involving Iran, Israel, Hezbollah, and the United States, resembles the Second Arab-Israel war of 1956-57, when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser seized the Suez Canal and closed it for six months, taking 10 per cent of the world’s