{"id":2016,"date":"2026-03-31T12:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T12:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/2016\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T12:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T12:20:20","slug":"eu-tells-members-to-prepare-for-prolonged-disruption-to-energy-markets-from-iran-war-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/2016\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Tells Members to Prepare for &#8216;Prolonged Disruption&#8217; to Energy Markets From Iran War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Kate Abnett<\/p>\n<p>BRUSSELS, March 31 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0European Union governments should prepare for a \u201cprolonged disruption\u201d to energy markets as a result of the Iran war, the bloc\u2019s energy chief has told countries\u2019 ministers ahead of an emergency meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to energy ministers, dated March 30 and seen by Reuters, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said governments were \u201cencouraged to make timely preparations in anticipation of a potentially prolonged disruption\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Europe\u2019s heavy reliance on imported fuel means the continent is very exposed to the Middle East conflict\u2019s impact on global energy prices. European gas prices have jumped more than ?70% since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28.<\/p>\n<p>The bloc\u2019s supplies of crude oil and natural gas have not been hit directly by the closure of key\u00a0shipping\u00a0route the Strait of Hormuz, since Europe imports most of those energy sources from suppliers outside of the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>However, Jorgensen said Brussels was particularly concerned in the short term about Europe\u2019s supply of refined petroleum products such as jet fuel and diesel.<\/p>\n<p>Governments should avoid taking any measures that would increase fuel consumption, limit trade of petroleum products, or disincentivise output at European refineries that handle these products, the letter said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMember States are encouraged to defer any non-emergency refinery maintenance,\u201d the letter added.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Inti Landauro and Susan Fenton)<\/p>\n<p>(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gcaptain-article-trust-footer\" style=\"font-size:0.8em;color:#999;margin-top:1.5em;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/editorial-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/corrections\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Corrections<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/about\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">About gCaptain<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gcaptain-wire-disclosure\" style=\"font-size:0.8em;color:#999;margin:0.3em 0 0;\">This article contains reporting from Reuters, published under license.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/wp-content\/themes\/gCaptain-Theme\/assets\/images\/gcaptain-new-gray-logo.svg\" alt=\"logo\"\/><br \/>\n\t\tSubscribe for Daily Maritime Insights<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for gCaptain\u2019s newsletter and never miss an update<\/p>\n<p>        \u2014 trusted by our 107,426 members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS, March 31 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0European Union governments should prepare for a \u201cprolonged disruption\u201d to energy markets&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,40,2291,303,920],"class_list":{"0":"post-2016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-hormuz","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-strait-of-hormuz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}