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Energy Supplies and War

World markets have seen dramatic drops of international indices since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in northern Israel and throughout Lebanon, and oil prices have reached new highs as fears spread of a regional war in a region that supplies most of the energy supplies to Europe, Asia, and North America. The world has not seen oil prices of a similar type and severity for quite some time, and there seems to be no signs of a lowering of either the price-per-barrel aspect of oil prices or the high gasoline prices which often are the result.

Iran is a major supplier of oil, and should the Islamic Republic aid in the continuance of hostilities, or for that matter if Iran somehow gets directly involved in them, even more oil supplies will be interrupted from an oil-rich country in the Middle East. The pressure for many countries to end the current war is likely as much a result of a desire for a drop in oil prices as it is of a desire to see lives no longer being needlessly lost.

What the prices will be for countries that are evacuating their citizens from the Lebanese-Israeli war zone in terms of fuel for the planes remains to be seen, but given that there are tens of thousands of foreign nations who reside in Lebanon and Israel, it likely will not be cheap.