Oil most lethal weapon after SWIFT system, tariffs: Shankar Sharma on the ‘nightmare scenarios’

The way the Iran war is unfolding, two “nightmare scenarios” have presented themselves, says ace investor Shankar Sharma. He said he fears the weaponisation of oil after something similar was done to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system and tariffs. 

Sharma said the US has created Frankenstein's monster and is now unable to control it. He said there are two nightmare scenarios, according to him: nukes and oil.

He said the first scenario is that Israel launches nukes, claiming US approval. “It looks fairly clear that the US has created a Frankenstein over which it has almost no control,” he said.

The other scenario is that oil falls into the hands of the US. “Now think: if this happens, then America will be controlling pretty much the entire Global Oil except Russia. If this happens then, oil will be weaponised as a constant blackmail threat over the world, especially countries like India that have no leverage/ power unlike China,” he said. 

Sharma said in one single move, the energy dependency of India and many others will become beholden to the US. “After weaponising Swift and Tariffs, Oil will be the next and the most lethal weapon in the hands of America,” he said. 

This comes after Israel attacked Iran’s viral South Pars gas field. Trump said Israel had "violently lashed out" by attacking Iran's gas field. He added that Israel would not carry out further attacks on the gas field unless Iran retaliated.

Wednesday's assault on the South Pars gas field caused oil prices to rise and prompted Iran to threaten attacks on oil and gas targets across the Gulf. Iran also fired missiles at Qatar and Saudi Arabia in response. The escalation has further disrupted global energy supplies, increasing political tensions. Trump, who joined Israel in attacking Iran nearly four weeks ago, highlighted the seriousness of the situation.

State oil company QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage" after Iranian missiles struck the Ras Laffan Industrial City, which processes about 20 per cent of the world's gas supply.

On Thursday, Iran launched additional missile strikes on Qatar's gas facilities and targeted the Saudi capital again. QatarEnergy reported "sizeable fires" and extensive damage at several liquefied natural gas facilities hit in the attacks.

Trump stated that the United States did not have prior knowledge of Israel's attack and that Qatar was not involved. He warned that no more attacks would be made by Israel on the South Pars field unless Iran attacked Qatar, in which case the US would respond with overwhelming force against the gas field.