The head of Saudi Arabia's national oil company has warned that global oil inventories meant to cushion against supply shocks are now dangerously low, and conditions could worsen further if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened. His remarks came just days after major economies announced plans to release up to 100 million barrels of emergency crude and diesel reserves to ease rising fuel costs.

Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Monday at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London that until the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened and market confidence is restored, the reality is that pressure on both crude and refined products will intensify. He noted that while tight crude supply is already serious, refined product prices are climbing even faster.

Nasser said crude consumption is still growing, and over at least the next two years countries will need additional supply as they rebuild inventories. That could translate into at least 2 million barrels per day of new global demand, and the figure could be even higher if governments decide to raise their inventory levels.

Nasser said global oil inventories stood at about 10 billion barrels when the U.S.-Iran war broke out, but have since fallen to less than 6 billion barrels. Due to various technical constraints, only about 10% of that is actually available for use. He said releasing part of the remaining global inventory can only buy economies some time and cannot resolve the supply-demand imbalance.

Gulf oil producers are working to increase output and exports and have so far managed to restore crude export flows to close to pre-war levels.