BIROL - THE BIGGEST ENERGY CRISIS IN HISTORY IS HITTING THE WORLD - Filenews 21/4
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, has expressed the position that the world is facing the biggest energy crisis in history, attributing the development to the war between the US and Israel against Iran and its wider effects on international energy markets.
Speaking to France Inter radio, Birol said that this is the most serious crisis on record, estimating that its magnitude is reflected in the combination of the oil crisis and the gas crisis linked to Russia.
As he explained, the war in the Middle East has led to an almost complete halt to navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, from where, under normal circumstances, about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes.
According to him, the current turmoil comes on top of the already serious effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, which has led the European Union to cut off Russian gas imports, further straining the energy balance.
Birol had already warned since the beginning of April that the situation in global energy markets is worse than the crises of 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined, speaking of a particularly difficult month for the global economy.
As he had pointed out, March was difficult, but April was expected to be even heavier. In this context, the IEA agreed in March to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves in an effort to stem the sharp rise in prices.
This intervention reflects, according to the Organization's estimates, the severity of the pressure on the global energy market, at a time when geopolitical risk and limited supply are fuelling new uncertainty.
