Big Oil Warns Shitstain & Co That Price Spikes Are Weeks Away; Exxon VP Predicts Physical Brent As High As $150-160

The oil industry is warning the Trump administration that a Hormuz-sized hole in the world’s petroleum market is steadily draining inventories to levels that are likely to send global energy prices surging in the next several weeks, according to four executives. Industry executives have flagged the issue to senior White House officials and Cabinet members in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing dialogue with the U.S. energy industry, the people said. The warnings came as recently as late last month as data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and other sources began showing that fuel makers were increasingly relying on oil and fuel from their storage tanks to replace products no longer arriving from the Middle East.

“We’re at dangerously low levels already,” said one industry executive who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations with the administration. “We have shared those concerns at the highest levels of government about what’s coming in mid-to-late June. … I hope they are paying attention to inventories right now. You’re hitting tank bottom.”

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Neil Chapman, Exxon’s senior vice president, told an investor conference last week that dated Brent — the benchmark for physical crude oil prices — could hit $150 or $160 a barrel soon in that scenario. “You can debate whether that’s going to hit those really low levels in two weeks or three weeks. Once you get to that point, then you’ll see prices shoot up,” Chapman said. “The administration has already been told that,” a second oil company executive told POLITICO of Chapman’s statement. The recent public pronouncements from industry executives are “a message for the consumer,” this person continued. “Don’t think that an open strait is going to mean your July 4 gasoline bill isn’t going to be higher than what it is today. It’s going to be.”

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The U.S. SPR release is part of a 400-million barrel effort by members of the International Energy Agency to prevent prices from skyrocketing. Even with those barrels coming into the market, global petroleum inventories have been falling by roughly 5.8 million barrels a day since the war began, according to Burkhard. Worldwide stocks now hold around 7.5 billion barrels — a decline of about 500 million barrels from the start of the war. But most of that oil already has buyers and is not being held in reserve, Burkhard said, and inventories in some regions may be hitting or soon to hit operational minimums, he said. “I’ve never seen inventory numbers fall so much so quickly,” he said. “It is stunning.”

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https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/04/oil-price-spike-white-house-hormuz-00949435