Trump administration officials are making a desperate push to secure every available barrel of oil amid a worsening energy crisis — even if it means lifting sanctions on the very country that they’re fighting against.
But three weeks into war with Iran, the administration is running out of options to contain the skyrocketing price of oil and gas.
Trump officials now privately estimate that the higher prices triggered by the war could linger for months, especially as fighting in the Middle East intensifies and passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains nearly impossible, three people familiar with the internal discussions said.
The US has already exhausted all of its go-to policy levers for alleviating the supply shock rippling through the global economy, those people said. The remaining options available to the government range from largely ineffective to deeply unpalatable.
“This is the biggest disruption to the oil markets that you can imagine,” said Neelesh Nerurkar, a former senior Trump Energy Department official. “The shortfall is so large that the measures available are dwarfed by how much oil is not reaching the market.”
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