Oil companies have graciously allowed petrol prices to fall back toward pre-war levels now that ships can safely transit the Strait of Hormuz again. The Strait, you may recall, became a geopolitical chokepoint after the US-Israel war with Iran disrupted shipping in February. Dozens of vessels are now moving through weekly, supply chains are normalizing, and crude prices have obediently followed the laws of supply and demand—which, oil executives want you to know, are completely beyond their control.
This is where the satire writes itself. When the Strait was blocked and supply was genuinely constrained, petrol prices spiked. Fair enough—that is how markets work. But now that the constraint has eased, prices have fallen only partway back. They remain stubbornly higher than pre-war levels, even as the physical scarcity that justified the spike has largely vanished.
When asked why, oil companies have collectively shrugged and pointed at Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Supply and demand, they explain. Market forces. Nothing to see here. The implication is that if you are still paying more per liter than you were six months ago despite the return of normal shipping, you should blame the universe, not the people selling you oil.
President Trump, sensing an election-year opportunity, has promised to investigate petrol price gouging. Whether that investigation will penetrate the fog of ‘it’s just economics’ remains to be seen. What is clear is that oil companies have discovered the perfect defense: admit nothing, explain everything as inevitable, and wait for the news cycle to move on. It is, after all, just how the market works.