Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, has described the record 400 million barrel reserve release authorized on March 11 as merely the opening move in what could become a sustained campaign of emergency energy market interventions. Speaking in Canberra, the IEA chief said the initial release represented just 20 percent of available strategic stocks and that further deployments were actively under consideration. He described the overall crisis as equivalent to the combined force of the 1970s twin oil shocks and the Ukraine gas emergency.
The war in Iran began February 28 with US and Israeli military strikes on Iranian targets, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and widespread damage to Gulf energy infrastructure. Oil losses have reached 11 million barrels per day and gas losses 140 billion cubic metres, surpassing all previous energy crises in scale. At least 40 Gulf energy facilities have been severely damaged, making rapid supply restoration impossible.
Birol said the IEA was in active consultation with governments in Europe, Asia, and North America about the timing and scale of any further reserve release. He said the decision would be based on careful analysis of market conditions and supply dynamics. Demand-side measures including remote working, lower highway speed limits, and reduced commercial aviation were also in place and helping to reduce pressure on markets.
The Hormuz strait, through which about 20 percent of global oil flows, remains closed to commercial shipping after attacks on tankers. The Asia-Pacific region has been hardest hit by the closure, while European fuel markets have also tightened. Birol met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and said Australia had an important role to play in contributing to the global energy security response.
Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to Iran to reopen the strait expired without resolution, and Iran threatened retaliatory strikes on US and allied energy and water infrastructure. Birol warned that no country would be immune from the consequences of a prolonged crisis and called for coordinated international action. He said the IEA was committed to using every tool available to support member governments — and that March 11 was only the beginning of the agency’s response if the situation continued to deteriorate.