ExxonMobil Senior Vice President Neil Chapman issued a stark warning to the public that energy prices could explode higher in the coming weeks, the same day his company’s board approved moving the corporate structure from New Jersey to Texas.
Speaking at the Bernstein Conference in New York on Thursday, Chapman warned that crude oil Prices could reach $160 a barrel in the coming weeks as dwindling reserve stocks eventually bottom out.
“We are approaching unprecedented inventory levels,” he said. “I mean really, really low levels. You can debate whether it’s going to get to those really low levels in two or three weeks. Once you get to that point, you’ll see prices skyrocket.”
Prices remained low, Chapman argued, due to the release of strategic oil reserves by various countries.
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“Commercial stocks of crude oil, liquids, oil, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, are all depleted. And the reduction in those stocks has mitigated or compensated, supplemented by the release of strategic oil reserves, as most Western countries have done. All of that has mitigated the impact,” Chapman explained.
ExxonMobil Senior Vice President Neil Chapman gestures during the APEC CEO Summit in Port Moresby on November 16, 2018, as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. (FAZRY ISMAIL/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
He then warned that Brent, the main benchmark for the price of crude oil in the United States, global market“going to skyrocket…to $150, $160.”
“And I think the price of crude between $90 and $110 over the last six weeks, whatever it was, was really dampened by the decline in inventories. That can’t go on forever.”
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Dated crude fell from a monthly average of $117 in April to nearly $103 in May, falling sharply in recent days following news of progress in the U.S.-Iran peace deal.
View of a residential area hit during U.S.-Israeli military operations in the town of Karaj in Alborz province, several kilometers west of Tehran, Iran, April 3, 2026. The area was struck on March 9. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
However, it remains much higher than before the United States and Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran in late February, when it hovered around $75 a barrel, according to S&P Global.
Chapman delivered his message on the same day that Exxon shareholders approved a plan to move the company’s legal headquarters from New Jersey to Texas.
An Exxon gas station in Albany, California on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Citing Texas’ strong regulatory environment, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the state is better suited for the company in a statement.
“It is important to align our legal headquarters with our operational headquarters, in a state that understands our business and has a stake in the company’s success.”
Teleprinter Security Last Change Change % XOM EXXON MOBIL CORP. 145.26 -1.70 -1.16% ExxonMobil already moved its headquarters to Texas in 1989 and all of its corporate management operations are already in the Lone Star State. The company said 75% of its U.S.-based workforce also works in Texas.
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Exxon first plans announced to move in March.
