New York
\nOil supply disruptions from the Middle East will rise in April and begin to impact Europe\u2019s economy as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz severely curbs supplies, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said on Wednesday.
\nMore than 12 million barrels of oil have been lost since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran due to Tehran\u2019s retaliatory strikes on energy assets in the region and restrictions on shipping through the Strait, he added.
\n\u201cThe loss of oil in April will be twice the oil loss in March, on top of the loss of LNG… It will come through inflation and will cut economic growth in many countries,\u201d Birol told a podcast with Nicolai Tangen, the head of Norway\u2019s sovereign wealth fund.
\nLosses are expected to widen in April, since a number of oil and LNG cargoes arriving in March were contracted before the war and continued towards their destinations, he added.
\nThe biggest problem is the lack of jet fuel and diesel, which has already affected Asian countries but was also due to hit Europe, Birol said. \u201cWe are seeing that in Asia, but soon, I think, in April or May, it will come to Europe,\u201d he added.
\nBirol repeated that the IEA was considering a further release of strategic reserves after its members agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil.
\nThe current oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply disruption is worse than the two oil crises in 1973 and 1979, as well as the loss of Russian gas volumes due to Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, combined, Birol said.
\nAbout 40 key energy assets in the Middle East have been damaged since the start of the war, and it would take some time to get them back, he added.
\n\u201cWe are heading to a major, major disruption and the biggest in history up to now,\u201d Birol said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York Oil supply disruptions from the Middle East will rise in April and begin to impact Europe\u2019s economy as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz severely curbs supplies, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said on Wednesday. More than 12 million barrels of oil have been lost since the start of the US-Israel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-539549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n