If, for example, Iran enters into a long-term oil commitment with China and/or India, the amount of oil going to those countries will have been already spoken for and thus not be part of the short-term global oil market. In a loose sense, Iran would be sort of acting like a transnational public utility rather than a commodity supplier.

It appears that we are going to see more and more of these sorts of oil blocks, as countries increasingly fear being left out in the cold when the crunch comes.

It hardly needs saying that this a very dangerous trend. Oil blocks need to be defended, as the various parties covet each other's oil.  This has the makings of a new Cold War, if countries start congealing into various blocks based on oil.