The Iran energy crisis is a systemic shock to the global economy that demands a systemic response — not a collection of individual national emergency measures, but a genuinely coordinated and comprehensive international framework, the head of the International Energy Agency has argued. Fatih Birol, speaking in Canberra, said the scale of the disruption — equivalent in force to the combined 1970s twin oil shocks and the Ukraine gas emergency — was too large to be managed through fragmented national responses. He called for the highest level of international coordination in the agency’s history.
Birol explained that a systemic shock required a systemic response because the interconnected nature of global energy markets meant that actions by individual nations inevitably affected all others. Fuel hoarding reduced global supply availability. National emergency measures that prioritized domestic markets drove up prices for all importing nations. And conversely, coordinated reserve releases and demand policies had multiplier effects that made collective action far more powerful than individual measures.
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 air travel. He met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and praised Australia’s engagement with the international response as a model of the systemic approach the crisis demanded.
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 with a call to action that he directed not just at energy ministers but at heads of state: this was a crisis that required leadership at the highest level, and that the systemic nature of the shock demanded nothing less than a systemic, collective, and fully committed international response.