Suncor declined to speed up output as Ottawa and Alberta courted the sector
The world has lost more than 2.6bn barrels of oil since the war on Iran began in late February, a shortfall that would take up to 18 months to replenish even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened tomorrow.
Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi producer Aramco, set out those figures on Tuesday, saying global inventories were running low despite emergency releases from strategic and commercial stocks.
The disruption has lifted profits across the sector.
Aramco raised its second-quarter net profit 44 percent, to US$32.69bn.
ExxonMobil's profit doubled to US$14.5bn and Chevron's climbed to US$12bn, their strongest in four and six years respectively, Al Jazeera reported, while Shell more than doubled its earnings to nearly US$10bn.
Energy posted year-on-year earnings growth of 135.3 percent for the quarter, the highest of any sector in the S&P 500, as per FactSet data cited by the same outlet.
US President Donald Trump has turned on the largest US drillers over those results, singling out Chevron and ExxonMobil.
Trump said companies had made too much money and should return some to the public, BNN Bloomberg reported.
They "better cut the retail price," he told reporters on Monday.
Crude prices have since slid on hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough.
Brent fell 33 cents, or 0.42 percent, to US$79.12 a barrel by early Thursday, and West Texas Intermediate dropped 42 cents to US$74.80, Reuters reported, capping a two-session sell-off.
Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on the coordinates for a Hormuz shipping route, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Wednesday.
A proposed deal would hand Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf, three sources told Reuters, though US officials have said they would never accept that outcome.
Iran denied that peace talks were under way.
Fresh attacks have limited the decline, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis reporting strikes on Saudi tankers off Yanbu and in the Gulf of Aden, though Saudi Arabia confirmed neither, according to Reuters.
Gulf crude and condensate exports stayed about 40 percent below pre-war levels in July.
Canadian producers are not rushing to fill the gap.
Suncor Energy is not yet willing to speed up planned output increases, its chief executive, Rich Kruger, said on Wednesday, even as Ottawa and Alberta court the sector.
"In terms of how it has or may affect our plans, that's still to be determined," Kruger said on a conference call, as per Reuters.
Enbridge said last week it would postpone a 250,000-barrel-a-day expansion of its Mainline network, citing producers' reluctance to commit to higher output.
The shock is still reaching households: United States pump prices have averaged above US$4 a gallon, close to 40 percent higher than before the war, according to the American Automobile Association cited by Al Jazeera.
The most recent official forecast predates the flare-up.
In its July outlook, completed July 1, the United States Energy Information Administration projected Brent would average about US$74 a barrel in the third quarter and US$65 in 2027, expecting output and trade flows to return to near pre-conflict levels by year-end.
Its next update is due August 11.
