FROM PAGE B4

Among the Gulf producers, Iraq’s revenue fell the ​most - plunging by 76 percent to $1.73 billion. Kuwait was next with a 73 percent fall to $864 million.

Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO said on April 2 that March oil revenues were about $2 billion, close to ​Reuters’ estimate.

Both countries are likely to suffer steeper declines in April as their March revenues were improved by cargoes that managed to sail in the early days of the conflict. A tanker laden with Iraqi crude sailed through the Strait last week after Iran said Iraq would be exempt from restrictions.

Adriana Alvarado, VP of sovereign ratings at Morningstar DBRS, said Gulf governments had options to shore up their finances and could either draw on fiscal savings or go to the financial markets to issue debt.

“Apart from Bahrain, the Gulf states have enough fiscal room to deal with the shock, with government debt ​at moderate levels below 45 percent of GDP,” she added.

For the longer term, however, the impact is unclear.

Some oil companies and politicians in the West have ​lobbied for increased investment in fossil fuels to try to protect against supply shocks, but some analysts say renewable energy provides the best protection.

In an early indicator of how the crisis could accelerate a shift from reliance on oil, last week France’s TotalEnergies and UAE state-backed renewable energy firm Masdar announced a $2.2 billion joint venture to rapidly ​deploy renewable energy across nine Asian countries.