Chevron CEO drops stark warning on oil prices

I person been watching lipid marketplace commentary for a while. CEOs thin to beryllium measured. They talk successful ranges. They qualify. They hedge. It has been 92 days since the U.S. and Israeli subject run against Iran began connected February 28, 2026.

That is what made Chevron CEO Mike Wirth's remarks astatine the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference connected May 28, 2026, truthful striking.

He wasn't hedging.

"The buffers and the daze absorbers are being steadily drawn down, and the quality for the marketplace to sorb this imbalance is drastically diminished contiguous versus wherever we started," Wirth said, according to Seeking Alpha.

Wirth went further: "Over the adjacent fewer weeks, we're apt to spot those pressures travel done much straight to carnal prices, and there's much upwards unit that I would expect arsenic we get into June and surely into July."

That is simply a specific, directional informing from the CEO of 1 of the world's largest vigor companies. The Iran warfare has been grinding done planetary lipid reserves for much than 10 weeks. The cushion that absorbed the archetypal daze is astir gone. And the information is starting to corroborate what Wirth is describing.

What the inventory numbers reveal. The cushion is astir gone

The EIA's play petroleum presumption report, released May 28 for the week ending May 22, puts hard numbers connected what Wirth described.

U.S. commercialized crude lipid inventories fell 3.3 cardinal barrels successful a azygous week, according to the EIA report. At 441.7 cardinal barrels, U.S. crude stocks are present astir 2% beneath the five-year mean for this clip of year. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell 9.1 cardinal barrels to 365.1 cardinal barrels successful the aforesaid week, according to the aforesaid report.

The merchandise representation is arsenic stressed:

• Motor gasoline inventories are 6% beneath the five-year average

• Distillate substance inventories are 11% beneath the five-year average

• Total commercialized petroleum inventories fell by 8.3 cardinal barrels successful the week
  Source: AIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report

West Texas Intermediate crude was trading astatine $100.35 per tube connected May 22, according to the EIA — up $37.46 from a twelvemonth ago.  It has retreated, but inactive remains overmuch higher than earlier the war, adjacent $88.

The nationalist mean retail terms for regular gasoline reached $4.475 per gallon connected May 18, up $1.315 from a twelvemonth ago, according to the aforesaid report. Diesel was averaging $5.523 per gallon, a $2.036 summation twelvemonth implicit year.

The IEA's May 2026 Oil Market Report adds the planetary dimension. Global observed lipid inventories drew down by 129 cardinal barrels successful March and by a further 117 cardinal barrels successful April, according to IEA data.