The world must move beyond emergency management and toward genuine strategic crisis resolution in its response to the Iran energy emergency, the head of the International Energy Agency has urged. Fatih Birol, speaking in Canberra, said the IEA’s reserve releases and demand-side policies were essential emergency measures but could not substitute for the sustained diplomatic and security efforts needed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore normal energy supply. He described the overall crisis as equivalent to the combined force of the 1970s twin oil shocks and the Ukraine gas emergency.
Birol said there was a danger that governments would become focused on managing the immediate symptoms of the crisis — responding to each new supply disruption, adjusting reserve release schedules, and calibrating demand policies — without committing the political capital and diplomatic effort needed to address the underlying causes. He said the crisis demanded both kinds of response simultaneously, with neither being allowed to crowd out the other.
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 consultations with governments across three continents were ongoing. 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 urged Australia to use its diplomatic relationships in the region to contribute to strategic crisis resolution efforts.
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 concluded that emergency management was buying time — precious time — but that time was not unlimited. He called on world leaders to invest the same urgency in diplomatic resolution that they were investing in emergency response, because ultimately only one of those two tracks could bring the crisis to a genuine end.