IEA boss: 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-Israel war on Iran, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
IEA executive director Fatih Birol, who had not talked to the media during the initial weeks of the war, explained on Monday why he broke his silence last week.
“I thought the depth of the problem was not well appreciated by the decision-makers around the world,” Birol told journalists at Australia’s National Press Club.
Birol stressed that markets are losing more oil per day than during the the twin oil crises of the 1970s combined.
Meanwhile, market losses in natural gas are nearly twice as high as after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he added.
This means that the crisis caused by the Iran war already equals “two oil crises and one gas crash put all together.”
Birol also took aim at Germany for exiting nuclear power following the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011.
He accused the German government of making a major strategic mistake by shutting down its nuclear power plants, claiming that the current situation wouldn’t be as bad if Germany were still able to rely on nuclear power.
