Daniel Yergin Sees a 'Different World' Emerging After the Hormuz Crisis

“Well, it was that in fact a nightmare scenario that had been in not only for energy, but for strategic planners for decades had happened. I think it's one of those things that people looked at as a scenario but thought it would never happen, but then it happened. And it does change the world and it changes the way people think about energy. We've had supply chain shocks, but this was the mother of all supply chain shocks in terms of the closure of the Strait Of Hormuz.”

“Iran's ability to control the Strait against a much stronger military is a demonstration that the balance of global power is changing, with profound ramifications for countries around the world. We discuss how different regions are being affected, and how it will change their calculus when it comes to energy security.”

“I think from the industry point of view, they saw there there are major dislocations, and those dislocations are playing out unevenly across the world. Asia hit the hardest, Europe feeling it, and then The US mainly seen it in terms of rising prices at the gasoline pump, but no problem getting supplies. But in Asia, a big problem getting supplies.”

“We had two different prices going at the same time. We had the the Brent, the futures price, which was always saying, well, this is gonna end and prices are gonna come down. And then there was the dated Brent, the near term, which said, we are having a major dislocation and prices are really going up. And we've never seen that dislocation on that scale before. It was like two different visions of the world almost.”

“We also talk about the AI industry's seemingly insatiable demand for electricity, and how this is rippling across the entire energy landscape. This is part of the long term trajectory of the energy layout which seems to have been altered, no matter what happens immediately with the conflict in Iran.”