Canberra, March 23 (SANA) International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol warned Monday, in remarks at the National Press Club in Canberra, that the war in the Middle East could plunge the world into its worst energy crisis in decades, describing the situation as “very severe.”
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Birol said the current crisis has already surpassed the scale of the two major oil shocks of the 1970s combined.
He added: “the current losses in oil supply have reached 11 million barrels per day, exceeding the combined losses seen during the two major oil crises of the 1970s.”
Birol noted that during each of the 1970s crises, the world lost about 5 million barrels per day, totaling around 10 million barrels per day, compared with 11 million barrels per day lost today.
He pointed out that the continuation of the war has caused severe damage to at least 40 vital energy sites across nine countries in the Middle East, stressing that the situation in the region is “very dangerous.”
Birol added that reopening the Strait of Hormuz to international navigation remains the only solution to overcome the crisis.
Since the start of the U.S.-Israeli-Iranian war in late February, disruptions to key energy routes have driven sharp increases in global oil and gas prices, raising concerns over global energy security
IZ/RK
