The US and Iran interim deal is aimed at reopening one of the world&#x27;s most important shipping lanes. But even if an agreement is signed, how quickly can things return to normal? How soon can oil tankers and LNG shipments return to service? When might energy supplies begin to ease? And how long before drivers, businesses and households actually feel the benefit through lower prices? Markets may react within hours, but the real-world impact could take much longer. This is the latest episode of our weekly Power Players show. It&#x27;s hosted by Rahul Tandon in the UK and our North America Business Correspondent Michelle Fleury in New York, in conversation with the BBC&#x27;s Economics Editor Faisal Islam. Producer: Niamh McDermott Editor: Stephen Ryan Executive producer: Justin Bones (Photo: People drive past an anti-U.S. billboard depicting US President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, 17 May, 2026. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA - West Asia News Agency)

When will petrol and gas get cheaper again?

Business Daily

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Business Daily

## Transcript

Raul, have you ever signed a deal and it's taken ages for it to kick in? Well, you won't be surprised about this, Michelle, but I do like deals, not just cinema deals. But yeah, when I bought my house, I got so excited. Then it took me months to actually get in it. So I had to live with my parents, which I didn't mind so much. But I have to say, if you ask my wife about it, you might get a slightly different answer to it. All right. Well, we're not talking about domestic deals here. We're talking about something a little bit bigger. The US and Iran are due to sign a big deal on Friday and it involves the Strait of Hormuz.

And when it closed, you may recall one fifth of the world's oil stopped moving. The world immediately felt it. So how quickly can everything go back to normal? That's on today's episode of Business Daily. I'm Michelle Fleury in New York. I'm Rahul Tandon here in the UK. Normally, I would have William Bain sat next to me,

but Michelle is deserted. He's gone off to watch some cricket instead, which I think is a bit rude of him. I thought you were going to say he'd hot-footed it to Mexico or something to watch one of the host countries in the World Cup. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's gone to watch the cricket, but I think we've got a better replacement. We've got someone who's even better than him, have we? Yes, we have. A very special guest. The BBC's economic editor, Faisal Islam, is with us. Welcome to the show. Hi, Michelle. Hi, Raul.

Let's get to the Strait of Hormuz. Where is it? What's going on, Faisal? Well, I mean, how can anyone not know what it is now? It may have been forgiven about three or four months ago, but clearly, it is the small 21-mile body of the narrowest point, essentially, between the southern coast of Iran and the north coast of essentially a part of Oman.

And it's the narrowest point, obviously, controlling entry into and out of, critically, the Persian Gulf. It has been and still remains, although not quite just now, the main artery for not just energy, but the economy, and not just oil, these days increasingly gas, gas, which gets pumped and drilled and taken out of the ground, however, gets taken out of the ground,

and then put on ships. If it's gas, it gets frozen, and then shipped en masse, nonstop, 365 days a year, out of the Gulf and onto world markets. It's until, of course, what occurred roughly three months ago. Yeah. And there's a lot of it, isn't it? If we go back to 2025, there were 20 million barrels of oil and oil products that were passing through the Straits of Hormuz. We've got 20% of the world's LNG that goes through that.

And a lot of it particularly goes to those big countries like China and India and Asia. And they've really, really struggled since this has been closed, which was around the 28th of February. And so you have this twin impact that has hit the world economy hard, which is the physical supply of o...

When will petrol and gas get cheaper again?

Transcript

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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When will petrol and gas get cheaper again?

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.