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LONDON: The amount of oil in storage that is accessible to the global market is running low, \u200cindustry executives said at a forum in London this week, making the market more fragile and putting upward pressure on prices.<\/strong><\/p>\n Governments and energy companies have drawn oil from stockpiles to alleviate pressure in a global oil market facing unprecedented supply disruptions this year due to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLess than \u200b6 billion barrels of commercial inventories remain today, with the vast majority not practically available, so the system is \u200balready straining,\u201d Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Arabia\u2019s state oil company Saudi Aramco, said at the Energy \u2060Intelligence Forum in London.<\/span><\/p>\n More than 1 billion barrels of oil have been released mainly from onshore commercial inventories since the start of \u200bthis year\u2019s Middle East crisis, which was the last major tool in the box, Nasser said.<\/span><\/p>\n The International Energy Agency, the West\u2019s oil watchdog \u200band coordinator of its strategic oil reserves, is preparing to release 100 million barrels of crude and diesel to help alleviate soaring diesel prices, but it is not clear if some of that total will include volumes from its record first 400 million barrel release in March that hadn\u2019t hit the market \u200byet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt took a lot of negotiations, but it is 100 million,\u201d Nasser said of the IEA decision. \u201cInventories are reaching a stress level. \u200bOnly 10% or less is available, that\u2019s why they struggle with 100 million barrels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n World oil demand is about 102 million barrels per day, according to \u200cthe IEA.<\/span><\/p>\n The loss of the oil market\u2019s buffers has made the market more fragile, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said on Tuesday, adding that this has increased oil\u2019s price floor.<\/span><\/p>\n Oil market turmoil will continue beyond next year, executives said at the conference on Monday, as it could take years to refill inventories on top of meeting global demand.<\/span><\/p>\n Not all oil in storage is immediately usable because \u200bof operational factors like tank bottoms \u200bor oil sat in pipelines, \u2060as well as political factors like government rules dictating minimum levels of emergency stocks.<\/span><\/p>\n There is huge demand to build additional inventories around the globe, Nasser added. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation CEO Shaikh Nawaf Al-Sabah \u200bsaid his company is aiming to build out storage domestically and at its overseas refineries.<\/span><\/p>\n The world \u200bis reliant on \u2060the seaborne oil exports escaping the Middle East \u201cto keep things in balance as we go through winter, because there aren\u2019t any more inventories to drain in the West,\u201d the CEO of commodities trader Vitol Russell Hardy said.<\/span><\/p>\n Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve are at their lowest \u2060since October \u200b1982, according to data from the Department of Energy.<\/span><\/p>\nSUPPLY \u2060RESILIENCE CUSHION IS SCARILY THIN<\/span><\/h2>\n