{"text":[[{"start":9.05,"text":"Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth has warned oil prices are likely to rise over the next two months as crude inventories continue to decline due to the Iran war."}],[{"start":19.75,"text":"“The buffers and the shock absorbers are being steadily drawn down, and the ability for the market to absorb this imbalance is drastically diminished today versus where we started,” he said at a conference organised by the investment bank Bernstein on Thursday."}],[{"start":35.9,"text":"“Over the next few weeks, we’re likely to see those pressures flow through more directly to physical prices and there’s more upwards pressure that I would expect as we get into June and certainly into July.”"}],[{"start":47.5,"text":"Wirth’s comments follow a 10 per cent fall in oil prices over the past week amid optimism that the US and Iran can agree a deal to end the three-month-long conflict that has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of crude flows."}],[{"start":63.75,"text":"They highlight growing concern among economists that the war’s impact on energy prices will continue to be felt for many months after any deal is agreed to end it. The conflict has removed 12mn-13mn barrels of oil a day from global markets."}],[{"start":80.1,"text":"The comments by Wirth echo a growing chorus of warnings from other oil executives, including the head of the United Arab Emirates state oil group Adnoc, who cautioned last week that full oil flows through the Strait of"}],[{"start":92.64999999999999,"text":"Hormuz were unlikely to return before next year even if the conflict is resolved."}],[{"start":97.44999999999999,"text":"“It will take at least four months to get back to 80 per cent of pre-conflict flows, and full flows will not return before the first or even second quarter of 2027,” Adnoc chief executive Sultan al-Jaber said during an Atlantic Council event on May 21."}],[{"start":114.94999999999999,"text":"The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down almost 1 per cent at $93.71 a barrel on Thursday, while West Texas Intermediate traded just under $90. "}],[{"start":127.29999999999998,"text":"Wirth said oil prices had not risen as much as people had expected due to higher-than-normal stocks of crude prior to the outbreak of the war, releases from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and flows of sanctioned oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela. But he said these stocks were now running low. "}],[{"start":145.35,"text":"Wirth said the energy crisis would force governments to focus more on “an insurance policy” by building up oil reserves to insulate them from shocks such as the pandemic and wars in Iran and between Russia and Ukraine. "}],[{"start":159.9,"text":"“The likelihood that another shock is around the corner is something policymakers are going to have to bear in mind . . . how long they want to roll the dice before they refill inventories is a question that I think we’re going to see policymakers have to grapple with.”"}],[{"start":174.15,"text":"“That’s going to put more demand into the market, which is going to put a bit of additional tension on the price,” he said."}],[{"start":180.95000000000002,"text":"Wirth said damage to oil and gas infrastructure in the Middle East would cost tens of billions of dollars to repair, putting additional upwards pressure on prices. "}],[{"start":191.55,"text":"“If this goes on for long, it tips us into an economic slowdown or a recession, you might have an offset on the demand side, which you can’t rule out.”"}],[{"start":209.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780021314_4907.mp3"}