Growing Israel-Iran Conflict and Its Impact on Energy Markets

In the growing conflict between Israel and Iran, many questions now loom, including the extent of US involvement, the potential for regime change, and the status of Iran’s nuclear program. All this uncertainty and speculation is having some impact on energy markets and potentially much more in the weeks to come. 

While there have been some attacks on energy infrastructure, there has not been a significant disruption in oil or gas supply to the global market. Some energy traders are seemingly anticipating that the conflict will remain contained in the months to come, but this is far from certain. 

How is the conflict evolving? What are the paths for a ceasefire or diplomatic resolution to end the conflict? How is all of this impacting energy markets?

In response to the events on June 12, we pulled in Daniel Sternoff and Richard Nephew, two leading experts at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA to discuss what we know about Israel’s attack on Iran, the backdrop of a volatile energy market, and what could happen in the coming days and weeks.

Daniel is non-resident fellow at CGEP. He is also the Head of Energy Aspects’ Executive Briefing Service. 

Richard is a senior research scholar at CGEP. He formerly served as the US Deputy Special Envoy for Iran under the Biden administration where he played a key role in negotiations over the Iran deal.

Daniel and Richard joined Jason Bordoff on the afternoon of June 18 to unpack the escalating conflict in the region. They discussed the current state of Iran’s nuclear program, the scenarios for conflict escalating in the Middle East and how oil prices fit into and might be affected by all of this.

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Gregory Vilfranc of Franc Village Studios engineered this show.