Iran energy crisis ‘not well appreciated’ by world leaders
World leaders have not yet sufficiently understood the dimensions of the energy crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war against Iran, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, who did not speak to the media during the first weeks of the war, explained on Monday why he broke his silence last week.
“I thought the scale of the problem was not well appreciated by policymakers around the world,” Birol told reporters at Australia’s National Press Club.
Birol pointed out that markets are losing more oil per day than during the two oil crises of the 1970s combined.
At the same time, losses in the natural gas market are almost twice as high as after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he added.
This means that the crisis caused by the war in Iran is already equivalent to “two oil crises and a gas crash combined”.
Birol also criticized Germany for its exit from nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
He accused the German government of making a major strategic mistake by closing its nuclear power plants, saying the current situation would not be so bad if Germany could still rely on nuclear power.
