The coming summer will be difficult for Europe due to fuel shortages caused by the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz even in the best-case scenario, European Union Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Tuesday.
The EU is preparing measures to curb the impact the war is having on jet fuel supply, Jorgensen told reporters in Madrid.
“If needed we may redistribute and share jet fuel resources we have,” he said.
European airlines have warned of jet fuel shortages within weeks as a result of the Iran war, which has blocked the main supply route through the Strait of Hormuz. About 75% Europe’s jet fuel supply comes from the Middle East.
Additionally, on Tuesday, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel is creating the worst energy crisis ever faced by the world.
“This is indeed the biggest crisis in history,” Birol told France Inter radio in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
“The crisis is already huge, if you combine the effects of the petrol crisis and the gas crisis with Russia,” he added.
The war in the Middle East has choked up maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which is a conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.
It has also come on top of the effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine, which had already severed Russian gas supplies to Europe.
Birol had said earlier this month that he viewed the current situation in global energy markets as worse than previous crises in 1973, 1979, and 2022 combined.
In March, the IEA agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles to combat rising oil prices caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran.
🚨 BREAKING: Watch the full clip here ➤
