The world has lost about 1 billion barrels of oil over the past two months and energy markets will take time to stabilise even if shipments through the Strait of Hormuz resume, Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Sunday.
Speaking after Aramco reported a 25 per cent jump in net profit in the first quarter of 2026, Nasser told Reuters that global energy supplies had been sharply squeezed by Iran’s blockade of the strait, which has curtailed shipping and driven prices higher in the wake of the U.S.–Israeli war.
“Our objective is simple: keep energy flowing, even when the system is under strain,” Nasser said in the statement carried by Ada Derana.
“Reopening routes is not the same as normalizing a market that has been deprived of about one billion barrels of oil,” he added, saying years of underinvestment had compounded the strain on already-low global inventories.
Aramco has been routing crude through its East–West Pipeline to bypass Hormuz and move oil to the Red Sea, an asset Nasser described as a “critical lifeline” for the global supply crisis. He said Asia remained a key priority for the company despite the rerouting.
The 1 billion-barrel figure is the first concrete public estimate from a major producer of the cumulative supply shortfall caused by the Hormuz disruption. Sri Lanka, whose fuel import bill has been driven sharply higher by the same blockade, has seen oil prices push past $100 a barrel and the Central Bank flag rising fuel costs as a key risk to the recovery. Even if Iran responds favourably to a U.S. proposal to end the war, Nasser’s warning is that normalisation of the market will not be immediate.
Source: Ada Derana (Reuters).
