Javier Blas

THE energy industry's latest panic is that it is about to hit “tank bottoms”: the minimum amount of crude in storage required to keep the conveyor belt that goes from oilfields to refineries humming.

As with every financial narrative, the story of the impending oil crisis contains a grain of truth - and ample hogwash, says Javier Blas for Bloomberg Opinion.

On Wall Street, money speaks louder than words. The way Big Oil is currently allocating dollars suggests the supermajors are, quietly, preparing for leaner times. It’s the right approach: Oil is a cyclical business, and lower prices are always around the corner. This time, they may be even closer.

Javier Blas is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. He is coauthor of “The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources.”

"In price, is knowledge," is an old market saying. So what is the oil price telling us? At less than $90 a barrel, it isn’t screaming shortage. How so amid the Iran war? The release of strategic reserves is helping, as are bypass pipelines around the Strait of Hormuz. China has slashed its oil imports, freeing barrels for everyone else. Commercial stockpiles are, for now, helping. But that’s not the full story. Perhaps part of the tale is that more oil is flowing out of the Persian Gulf than i

The Iran war has triggered what many say is the largest oil-supply shock in history but the market has defied expectations of high prices, says Bloomberg Opinion's Javier Blas.

For a few weeks of 2026, the American continent was pumping nearly half of the world’s oil. It was an extraordinary moment, even if short lived. To a degree, it was a statistical aberration, a fortuitous byproduct of the Iran war, which had shut down much of the Persian Gulf’s energy industry. But it was also a very real indicator of a boom that has moved the oil market’s center of gravity away from the Middle East.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed at first-hand countries going literally broke under US economic pressure: Iraq, Venezuela and Cuba. The scenes I saw in Baghdad, Caracas and Havana were all very similar. The national currency became worthless, inflation skyrocketed and unemployment spiraled higher. And yet, American economic sanctions alone failed to force political change.

U.S. Viewpoints By Javier Blas, Bloomberg Opinion The Tribune Content Agency Updated August 21, 2026 1:26 AM

Over the years, I’ve witnessed first-hand countries going literally broke under U.S. economic pressure: Iraq, Venezuela and Cuba. The scenes I saw in Baghdad, Caracas and Havana were all very