Oil Executives Say the Great Fuel Crisis Is Here
- Trump officials say the oil-market disruption is temporary, but Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight.
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/oil-executives-say-the-great-fuel-crisis-is-here-b6b32030
By Benoît Morenne and Collin Eaton
September 14, 2026 at 5:06 p.m. ET
American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here.
Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves cannot be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate.
“All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”
It is hard to predict where oil prices will go, he added, but at the moment, it is difficult to envision prices coming back down quickly.
“I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen,” he said.
Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon, while gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by high prices will start pulling back on new purchases.
The Trump administration has repeatedly promised Americans that prices at the pump would decline and that energy flows out of the Middle East would keep increasing.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a Houston G-20 event on Monday that “the prices in the prior administration were this high anyway” and that Americans would have paid those prices permanently because former President Joe Biden was “pursuing a policy of energy subtraction and shutting down refineries.”
“If you want to write about the prices, make sure you include the word ‘temporary’ because this is a temporary disruption,” Burgum told reporters.
The White House sees two major measures it can take to help ease prices: boosting production in Venezuela and increasing U.S. fuel-making capacity.
In recent months, U.S. officials have focused on striking deals expected to bolster Venezuela’s oil production. In early September, they met with U.S. refining executives to discuss expanding the nation’s fuel-making capacity. A senior U.S. official said the administration is pleased with the progress made on both fronts.
Energy executives and White House officials say they have maintained a continuing dialogue about the energy situation since the conflict began. CEOs including Wirth speak frequently with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Wirth said Friday that he had not spoken with President Trump since August 3, when the president said in a Truth Social post that the CEO had not credited his administration for the oil industry’s good fortunes. Trump called on Chevron and other oil companies to bring “consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!”
Some CEOs and energy advisers say they have grown alarmed in recent weeks as the conflict has intensified, with ships and energy infrastructure being targeted by both sides.
“The advantage in most negotiations usually goes to the side that has time on their side, and is willing to be patient,” said Wil VanLoh, founder and CEO of Quantum Capital Group, during the Austin conference.
Iran, he said, “is willing to suffer. Their people have already suffered a lot for many decades.”
China is partly contributing to the global supply squeeze. For months, the world’s largest oil importer relied on its own crude stockpiles for nearly half of its daily consumption, providing some relief to oil markets. In recent weeks, however, it has resumed larger purchases from international suppliers, analysts said.
U.S. crude prices have jumped 19% during the past three weeks to trade near $101 a barrel as attacks in the Middle East multiply.
Iran has targeted oil tankers traveling through the Strait, even after Trump and his officials said several vessels had been escorted undetected through the waterway.
Houthi militants have recently launched attacks from Yemen against Saudi Arabian infrastructure and military sites. They also damaged the East-West pipeline, which extends from the Abqaiq oil field to Yanbu al-Bahr, a major Saudi port city on the Red Sea.
Trump has vowed to impose economic pressure on Iran and has ruled out sending ground troops. He has said he expects the war to last until the November midterm elections, but investors say they believe it will continue well beyond that point.
“That was the signal this is going to stretch on,” said Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners.
Diesel supplies are also tight because of refinery outages following conflicts in the Middle East and Russia. Demand for the fuel is expected to rise as farmers who use diesel-powered heavy equipment enter harvest season.
“Diesel has no easy solution,” Pickering said.
Trump has said Ukraine must halt strikes on Russia that endanger global diesel supplies.
In March, the CEOs of the three largest U.S. oil companies, ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, warned Trump administration officials, including Burgum and Wright, that a prolonged closure of the Strait could lead to a shortage of refined products such as diesel.
Some executives have privately criticized Trump’s handling of the conflict.
At the conference Monday, Burgum rejected persistent speculation that the White House is seriously considering a temporary ban on U.S. exports of refined products such as diesel. He said the administration does not believe such a move would lower prices.
“We will do anything that helps the price at home,” Burgum said. “But we’re also going to be smart about it, and not just have some idea that if we stop exporting, that somehow magically is going to help the prices.”