Marie Hunter was in the kitchen with her mother when a news alert flashed across her phone on Feb. 28, announcing that the US and Israel had launched airstrikes in Iran.

“And so it begins,” Hunter recalled thinking.

Hunter is CEO of KRG Fuel and Energy, a wholesale supplier and distributor of petroleum products and one of the few Black-owned energy companies in the US. Because trucks move more than 70% of the country’s freight—from groceries and medicine to retail goods—shifts in oil markets ripple quickly through the broader economy.

Oil prices surged following the attacks, with Brent crude peaking at $100 per barrel by March 12, according to CME Group. That’s a major swing in a market where small movements can carry big consequences for distributors buying fuel in bulk.

Hunter was busy calling suppliers to secure fuel while also weighing whether to say something publicly about the conflict and what message that might send to her team.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How are current geopolitical tensions shaping your company? Has it affected supply chain issues?

Geopolitical tensions are tough because the supply chain gets affected, and when the supply chain gets affected, it passes along to the consumer and the communities and the people…What it has done directly here with the supply chain is it has caused [the price of] barrels of oil [to increase]. It’s been happening by the hour…When that starts to happen, scarcity happens. The prices have to elevate…If you are in infrastructure, or planning, and you have estimated certain costs with your procurement of anything related to oil and gas, you’re going to start to freak out, because this is thousands of dollars. In some cases, it can be the equivalent of millions in losses.

Do your employees or your stakeholders expect you to say something in regards to [the war] and your stance on it?

There’s sometimes a purgatory that can happen in a way: Do I? Don’t I? On the positive side, I have a very small team…but those conversations are happening regularly on how do we approach the subject matter…I need to balance my personal responsibility with my customer base and my business colleagues. And that personal responsibility becomes, how can we still best serve our customers?

To speak out publicly has always been tough. I think that pressure, as long as we are in this industry, will also remain difficult.

How do you handle that internal pressure from your team when these situations come up?

We try to have open discussions on, okay, what is the goal of this, and how do we feel?... Just because you have opposition does not mean it has to become adversarial. It’s just open to: “Do I respect and see your viewpoint?” That’s how we handle it internally.

Do you think founders have a responsibility to take a stance when global events like this directly affect their industry?

A founder has to evaluate those decisions extremely carefully…Are you willing to risk everything, or can you stand out publicly in that messaging and still hold that stance and know that you could be met with scrutiny or that you can be met with, “Let’s have the discussion.” Because I think that having the discussion with others is also important.

Have you ever had a public stance on a conflict like war before, and do you have one on this current situation?

War is not good for any of us…Any type of war or geopolitical strain, it’s going to affect everyone, regardless. It’s going to affect business owners. It’s going to affect the consumers…It can really fracture infrastructure, and that falls back on a lot of us.—JH