The world has lost around 1 billion barrels of oil over the past two months, and energy markets will take time to stabilise even if flows resume, the CEO of Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, said to Reuters. The challenge stems from shipping disruptions continuing to restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. ‘Our objective is simple: keep energy flowing, even when the system is under strain,’ Nasser told Reuters in a statement, after Aramco reported a 25% increase in net profit for the first quarter.
Global energy supplies have been severely constrained by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted shipping and pushed prices higher following the US-Israeli war.
‘Reopening routes is not the same as normalising a market that has been deprived of about 1 billion barrels of oil,’ Nasser adding, saying that years of underinvestment have intensified pressure on already low global inventories. Aramco has used its East-West Pipeline to bypass Hormuz and transport crude oil to the Red Sea, an asset Nasser described as a ‘critical lifeline’ in helping to ease the global supply crisis.
