Brent crude futures are on track for their biggest weekly gain since the early days of Covid, with the move now exceeding the 20% weekly spike at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, as the U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, has tipped the Gulf into an energy crisis, freezing commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and pushing some regional oil and gas production offline.

On Friday, Qatar's energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, told theFinancial Timesthat the Gulf conflict could trigger a global economic shock, warning that continued fighting would force all Gulf energy exporters to halt output and could send Brent crude prices north of $150 a barrel.

Strait of Hormuz the last 24 hours.Unreal.Source:@MarineTrafficpic.twitter.com/krcT5qp4ik

"Everybody who has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days if this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call force majeure," Kaabi explained. "If they don't, they are at some point going to pay the liability for that legally, and that's their choice."

Qatar is the world's second-largest producer of LNG and was forced todeclare force majeureearlier this week after IRGC drone strikes on its Ras Laffan plant.

"This will bring down the economies of the world," he warned. "If this war continues for a few weeks, GDP growth around the world will be impacted. Everybody's energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply."

Kaabi continued, "We don't yet know the extent of the damage, as it is currently still being assessed. It is not yet clear how long repairs will take."

On Tuesday, we provided readers with the number of days of disruption needed in the Gulf area (the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint) to trigger actual panic, that is 25.Read the full report here.

And for Zerohedge Premium and Pro subs. JPMorgan crunched the math on Hormuz and revealed just how many days until chaos (report here).

The math behind the forced shut inshttps://t.co/SJ88Pky7D3

Source: ZeroHedge News