Iran Risks Forced Production Cut Within 16 Days Citi Warns Oil Prices Could Surge to $130. Oil Market Has Reached Tipping Point

TradingKey - The U.S.-Iran conflict remains in a stalemate. On Tuesday (April 21), Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire deadline shortly before it was set to expire, as oil prices edged lower during the session: WTI crude futures fluctuated below $90, while Brent crude futures fluctuated below $100.

With the prospects for U.S.-Iran peace talks remaining murky, the crude oil market is fraught with uncertainty. JPMorgan (JPM) Head of Commodities Natasha Kaneva's latest analysis points out that under a scenario where the U.S. Navy implements a comprehensive export blockade, Iran would need to begin production cuts in about 16 days and cease production entirely within 30 days.

Citigroup (C) Its most pessimistic oil price forecast sees crude prices rising to $130: Starting from April 20, if disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz persist for 8-9 weeks, global crude inventories will fall to their lowest levels on record, and oil prices will remain at the $130 level through the third quarter.

Iran cuts crude oil production within 16 days.

Kaneva’s calculations show that based on Iran's approximately 40 million barrels of available onshore storage capacity, at an export rate of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), storage would be exhausted in 22 days; if the potential capacity of tankers in the strait is included, this could extend to 26 days.

However, in practice, production cuts would precede the filling of storage tanks, making the buffer period shorter than the ideal scenario. This is because a total shutdown is extremely damaging to underground reservoirs, potentially causing long-term or even irreversible damage, and the cost of restarting production is prohibitive; hence, producers prefer to maintain output at minimal levels rather than shutting down completely.

According to Kaneva’s estimates, Iran would need to start cutting production after about 16 days, with the scale of the cuts gradually increasing; by around day 30, the reduction would reach 1.9 million bpd, approaching its total export volume.

Data indicates that to sustain Iran’s domestic demand, upstream production must maintain a floor of approximately 1.8 million bpd. Since 1973, Iran's crude oil output has only dipped below this level during the 1979 Revolution.

Citi Sees Oil Prices at $130

Citi believes the most likely outcome is that the US-Iran conflict will show signs of easing this week, with both sides signing an extended ceasefire agreement. Under this base-case scenario, shipping through the strait and oil production could return to pre-disruption levels by the end of June. Based on this forecast, Citi expects Brent crude to average $95 in the second quarter, before pulling back to $80 and $75 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

A relatively pessimistic scenario assumes a continued one-month disruption in the Strait of Hormuz—extending for four weeks from April 20—while rerouting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Fujairah maintains the status quo. In this case, Brent crude prices would reach $110 in the second quarter, then fall back to $90 and $80 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

If the situation continues to deteriorate and the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz persists for 8-9 weeks starting April 20, total volume losses would reach approximately 1.7 billion barrels. Global crude oil inventories would drop to their lowest levels on record, causing oil prices to remain at $130 through the third quarter before retreating to $100 by year-end.

A New Phase for Crude Oil: Unpredictable Prices and Demand-Side Pressure

In fact, besides Iran, almost all other major oil-producing countries in the Middle East have initiated crude production cuts, including Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Earlier this month, U.S. government forecast data indicated that more than 9 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production would be forced offline in April.

Given that the war has caused substantial damage to refining capacity, energy and commodities research firm HFI Research noted that the global oil market is now nearing a "tipping point." Even if the U.S. and Iran reach an agreement this week, the market will still face severe supply shortages, eventually resulting in a forced decline in demand.

This will usher oil prices into a new phase: global onshore crude inventories will plummet at an unprecedented rate, making price ceilings difficult to predict as the market enters an irreversible extreme state.

According to HFI forecasts, with Middle Eastern refining capacity severely impacted, offline capacity now exceeds 5 million barrels per day. This supply gap is difficult to bridge; the only way to rebalance the market is for the demand side to drop significantly, with the scale of the decline needing to approach levels seen during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Analysts at Société Générale pointed out that, based on historical experience, it could take as long as nine months for OPEC production to return to normal, and demand is expected to return to regular levels approximately six months after the conflict officially ends.