Energy-consuming nations should release more crude oil from their strategic reserves to bring down the skyrocketing price of petroleum products, the chief executive of Hess Corp said on Monday.
Oil prices jumped as high as $137 a barrel early in the day, up from about $79 per barrel at the end of 2021 as sanctions on Russia vessels and buyers rejecting Russian oil worsened supply shortages.
“This is an emergency, it’s time the IEA (International Energy Agency) and U.S. release 120 million out of the strategic reserves and commit to doing another 120 million barrels,” Hess CEO John Hess said.
The 60 million barrels release announced by the United States last month “was too little,” Hess said during a panel at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference on Monday.
Petronas CEO Tengku Taufik addressing the same group called the huge increase in crude prices “absolute bedlam,” adding “there are no fundamentals driving it.”
However, Taufik warned that expectations for spare oil production capacity that could quickly be brought onto the market is “almost a mirage.”