Iran war energy crisis equal to 70s twin oil shocks and fallout from Ukraine war, says IEA chief
Source: The Guardian
Mon 23 Mar 2026 01.04 EDT
Last modified on Mon 23 Mar 2026 04.22 EDT
The global energy crisis caused by the war in Iran is equivalent to the combined force of the twin oil shocks of the 1970s and the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned. Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said the growing fallout could be seriously compounded through interuptions to the “vital arteries of the global economy”, including petrochemicals, fertilisers, sulphur and helium.
Speaking at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Monday, Birol said the depth of the problems in energy markets caused by American and Israeli bombings in Iran, and the closure of the stragetic strait of Hormuz, had not initally been properly understood by world leaders.
That situation prompted his intervention last week, when the IEA pushed for demand-side measures such as increases in the number of employees working from home, a temporary lowering of speed limits on highways and reduced air travel. He warned that at least 40 energy assets in the Gulf region had been severely or very severely damaged, so even an end to the conflict would not immediately restore energy supply.
Birol said that about 5m barrels of oil had been lost each day in the two crises in 1973 and 1979. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine had removed about 75bn cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas from international markets. But the current crisis, which started with bombings against the regime in Tehran on 28 February, already represented the loss of 11m barrels of oil per day and about 140 bcm of gas.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/23/iran-war-energy-crisis-1970s-oil-shocks-fatih-birol-iea