Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, has called on the world’s largest energy companies to immediately activate their emergency supply protocols and redirect available production and logistics capacity to help manage the global energy crisis caused by the Iran war. Speaking in Canberra, the IEA chief said that while governments and international institutions were taking emergency action, the private sector also had a critical role to play in maximizing available supply and ensuring it reached where it was most needed. He described the overall crisis as equivalent to the combined force of the 1970s twin oil shocks and the Ukraine gas emergency.
Birol said that major oil and gas companies with production capacity outside the affected Gulf region — in the Americas, Africa, Central Asia, and elsewhere — needed to maximize that production immediately and redirect available supply to markets most severely affected by the Hormuz closure. He also called on shipping companies to do everything possible to find alternative transit routes and maximize available tanker capacity. He said every action by the private sector that added supply to global markets was directly contributing to reducing the economic harm of the crisis.
The conflict began February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran and has since removed 11 million barrels of oil per day and 140 billion cubic metres of gas from world markets. At least 40 Gulf energy assets have been severely damaged, and the Hormuz strait — through which approximately 20 percent of global oil flows — remains closed. The IEA deployed 400 million barrels from strategic reserves on March 11 in its largest emergency action.
Birol confirmed further releases were under consideration and said the IEA was consulting with governments across three continents. He called for demand-side policies including remote work, lower speed limits, and reduced commercial aviation. He met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and said Australian energy companies had an important contribution to make to the global response.
Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to Iran to reopen the strait expired without result, and Tehran threatened retaliatory strikes on US and allied energy and water infrastructure. Birol warned that price gouging during the crisis was both economically harmful and morally unacceptable, and that the IEA was monitoring market behavior closely. He concluded that the crisis demanded the best from every participant in the global energy system — governments, international institutions, and private sector companies alike.