Dated world events that touch the region — diplomacy, trade, migration.
The US Energy Information Administration's latest Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts Brent averaging around $90 a barrel in the second half of 2026, easing only as production rises and inventories rebuild into 2027.
The UN's annual session begins September 8 with a diplomatic season shaped by the strike pause, the strait's unresolved status and the region's reconstruction claims, six months after the Council could not fully condemn the war's opening.
The September 6 meeting kept production at September's levels for October, pausing the increases the group had run since the war began and turning attention to the new quota framework.
The Guardian reported August 29 that inventories are at their lowest in 13 years, with the 90 percent refill target softened to roughly 80 percent and cargoes flowing to Asia instead.
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd moved another major service back through the canal in mid-August, and the largest vessels are transiting again, but the industry cautions a full return remains distant.
The August 2 virtual meeting approved 188,000 barrels per day for September, finishing the phased return of the 1.65 million-barrel tranche first agreed in 2023 and opening the quota-framework question.