The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the world has absorbed with surprising ease the loss of over a billion barrels of oil supply since the Iran war began but, with long-term peace elusive and buffer reserves now drained, it still faces the looming risk of future price spikes. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Tehran's throttling of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks launched on Feb. 28 fed fears of a catastrophic global energy crunch. The ensuing four-month conflict did, indeed, create the biggest energy disruption in history, according to the International Energy Agency. At its worst, the headline supply loss was 14 million barrels a day. But worries that Asia and Europe would run out of gasoline, diesel or jet fuel never materialized. And after peaking at $126 (U.S.) a barrel in April, Brent prices are now lower than they were when the conflict began. "This suggests traders viewed the disruption as serious but manageable, reflecting confidence in today's more resilient energy and economic systems," said John Baffes, senior economist at the World Bank. Helping were Saudi Arabia and the UAE finding alternative routes to export and Asia's curtailing of purchases.