Oil prices have increased and are likely to rise higher as a result of Iran seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Oman.
According to a BBC story on Friday, armed men ordered the oil tanker to head toward an Iranian port on Thursday as it approached Turkey.
The cost of a barrel of Brent crude oil rose by more than 2% to $78.40 following the event.
The disruption in the Red Sea might lead to a significantly larger contraction of the British economy, according to the government.
At the moment, gas shipments via the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are increasingly important to Europe.
The likelihood of more Middle East hostilities could affect petrol prices in the UK. Iran's seizure of the oil tanker was reported by the local official media as retaliation for the US's control of the same vessel last year.
The US demanded that Iran "immediately release the ship and its crew" and denounced what it called an "unlawful seizure."
Inflation and petrol pump prices can both rise in response to rising oil costs. The rate of inflation in the UK is currently 3.9%, having declined.
The average cost of a liter fell below £1.40 on Thursday for the first time since October 2021, according to the Automobile Association (AA), a motoring association.
The average price of diesel across the country is 147.83p per liter, down from 171.93p the previous year.
There appears to be no connection between the attacks carried out by the Houthi rebels in Yemen across the Arabian Peninsula in the Red Sea and Iran's seizure of the oil tanker.
But as head commodities economist at Capital Economics Caroline Bain pointed out, the oil market's reaction to these attacks and the Israel-Hamas war has been relatively muted.
"Initially, when the war broke out, there were fears that some of the major oil producers in the region, particularly Iran, but also Saudi Arabia, would become actively involved," she said.
But according to Bain, "fears of disruption to Middle East supply have been allayed" by the "surprisingly strong growth in US oil production in 2023 and in some other non-OPEC producers such as Brazil and Guyana."