Saudi Arabia is spearheading international efforts to stabilize global oil markets and contain the fallout from a supply crisis triggered by the Iran war and the halt to navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Using strategic logistics infrastructure, Riyadh has secured energy flows to consumers and helped prevent prices from soaring, as academic and industry warnings mount that the conflict’s structural impact on oil facilities and refineries could last for years, even if the war ends militarily and the strait reopens.
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Mohanna, adviser to the Saudi energy minister, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Kingdom’s role was “very important” and had spared the global oil market a serious crisis.
He said the East to West pipeline transported about 7 million barrels of oil to the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, and supplied international markets with crude and refined products, helping prevent prices from rising “insanely,” as he put it.
Al-Mohanna made the remarks after a seminar hosted by King Saud University titled "Media Narratives: The US-Israeli-Iranian War."
He said that when the Iran war began on Feb. 28, “the pace of events was very fast, and oil prices were highly volatile, even within a single day, amid blurred information and unclear facts.”
That, he said, led to “weak and scattered media coverage of oil issues and a lack of wise oil analysis,” which deepened price volatility. “There was even a major and unprecedented disconnect between the futures market and the spot market, with the gap sometimes reaching $50 a barrel,” he added.
Al-Mohanna said the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, along with Iran and Iraq, form the world’s most important oil region, not only because they produce about 20% of global oil needs, but also because of their refining capacity and production and export of liquefied gas, which is vital to many industries.
“The world lost about 13 million barrels per day because of the war, a very large amount by all standards,” he said.
“It represents the biggest crisis facing the global oil market.” He added that the conflict had major economic repercussions, while the closure of the Strait of Hormuz further complicated the situation and triggered another price spike.
Asked how long the war’s impact on the market could last, Al-Mohanna said the answer depended directly on the duration of the conflict, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the shutdown of fields and production in countries where wells and facilities suffered severe damage.
He said uncertainty remained over when the war would end and when flows of crude and petroleum products would return to normal. Questions also persisted, he said, over the scale of structural damage to fields and facilities, which could take a very long time to rehabilitate.
Al-Mohanna warned that the war’s impact on the energy sector would last for years, not months, even if the conflict ends militarily and politically and the Strait of Hormuz reopens.
He said production, and export disruptions that have built up since the start of the war would take time to correct. The longer the strait remains closed, he added, the harder and more complex it becomes to restore production to previous levels.
He stressed that the Kingdom, the Gulf states, and OPEC more broadly are working continuously to limit these negative effects and protect global consumers by focusing on two main pillars: balancing supply and demand and stabilizing prices.
Al-Mohanna also underlined the strong, consistent link between oil prices and the media, especially in major producing and consuming regions. During economic, political and military crises, he said, media outlets move beyond reporting news to become a real gauge for markets and investors and a force shaping the direction of global prices.
Dr. Abdulaziz bin Salamah, a former Saudi deputy minister of information, described the American and Israeli war on Iran as “unprecedented in several respects,” saying it was “the first war waged by Israel and America together without prior consultation with NATO allies.”
Speaking at the seminar, Bin Salamah said European media coverage rested on two main concerns: military security and the economy.
He pointed to “a growing sense of disappointment and shaken confidence among Europeans toward the United States during President Donald Trump’s term,” as well as European fears that Iranian ballistic missiles could reach deep into the continent.
Dr.Ibrahim Al-Beayeyz, former head of the university’s media department, said US media initially relied on “the official government narrative,” presenting the war as “a preemptive act to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
But over time, he said, “signs of breaking away from the official narrative began to appear, along with rising voices opposing the war.”
Dr. Mutlaq Al-Mutairi, a professor of media at the university, said: “What Israel is doing cannot be understood only within its traditional military framework, but within its broader framework linked to managing perception and producing meaning in contemporary conflicts.”
He said the Israeli narrative operates on three main levels: redefining the threat, legitimizing military action through a preventive logic, and cementing Israel’s status as a key security ally of the West.
The public, he said, was facing “a model of how media and narratives are employed in contemporary conflict, where politics overlaps with security, and media with perception, in shaping the balance of power.”
Meshel Alweil, a faculty member in the department, said Tehran relied on two different narratives in its media approach.
The first was directed at the Iranian domestic audience and focused on mobilizing local public opinion, while the second targeted external media through political and media messages aimed at international and Arab audiences.
