Oil industry chiefs have called on Wall Street to stop holding back investment in new crude supply as “chaos” and “bedlam” threaten to overwhelm energy markets amid fears the west will ban Russian oil exports following the invasion of Ukraine.
A surge in the international oil price to $139 a barrel on Monday has sparked fears that the rally could damage the global economy. Speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, oil executives pinned some of the blame on their investors.
“Investors have been telling [oil companies] not to invest so much. Well, this is a crisis, we should be investing more,” said John Hess, chief executive of Hess Corp, a big US shale oil producer. “We’ve had five years of under-investment and we’re paying for it now.”