Meanwhile, energy executives say market turmoil could last for years: File Image/Pixabay

The new trading week kicked off with another round of losses for crude on Monday, with reduced concerns expressed over supply shortages due to the U.S.-Iran war but executives fretting anyway that market “bedlam” could last for years.

Monday’s trading behaviour also suggested that traders may be becoming hardened to the ceaseless media coverage of Middle East hostilities that previously caused jitters about supply, the latest being Iran-backed Houthis attacking an airport, refinery and military base in Saudi Aradia, and the Saudis destroying weapons depots, explosive storage facilities and naval mines belonging to the group.

Col. Turki Al-Maliki, the official spokesman for coalition forces, said the retaliation was to “protect maritime navigation security in the Bab al-Mandab Strait,” and he added that “We have thwarted a plot for imminent attacks targeting the waterways south of the Red Sea.”

Brent settled down 1.8 percent at $100.32 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate also settled down 1.8 percent to $89.43 per barrel.

Despite traffic through the Strait of Hormuz returning to pre-war levels and the Saudis proving exceedingly adept at moving crude through a waterway Iran still insists it controls, industry executives said at a conference in London on Monday that shipping bottlenecks, deep cuts in refinery output, and inventory draws will keep global oil prices high this year and into 2027.

Petronas CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik said, “I think it is ⁠going to be bedlam for the bulk of the end of the year and maybe 2027.”

Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, added, “Until Hormuz fully re-opens and confidence returns, the crude reality is that pressure at both ends of the barrel will intensify; even then, replenishing inventories while meeting demand could take up to two years.”

For his part, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation CEO Shaikh Nawaf Al-Sabah pointed out that “There is not enough refining capacity in world to make up for shuttered capacity in Middle East ⁠Gulf.”

In other oil news on Monday, Mohsen Paknejad, oil minister for Iran, resigned his post for personal reasons, as the U.S. blockade was said to have reached the point where, according to U.S. treasury secretary Scott Bessent, the Islamic republic had no oil shipments remaining at sea and would generate zero oil revenue beginning this week.