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Shell CEO on Iran: You’re seeing the hard reality of taking 12% of the world’s crude off the market

The oil market faces a shortage of nearly 1 billion barrels that will only get worse every day the conflict in the Middle East drags on, Shell

CEO Wael Sawan told investors Thursday.

“The hard facts are we have dug ourselves a hole of close to a billion barrels of crude shortage at the moment, either because of locked in barrels or unproduced barrels,” Sawan said during the London-headquartered oil producer’s first-quarter earnings call.

“And of course, that hole is deepening every single day so the journey back will be a long one,” Sawan said.

To put that number in context, the entire world consumes about 100 million barrels of oil every day, according to data from OPEC.