Have markets and governments around the world horribly under-estimated the fallout from the war in Iran? That is the claim made by the president of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, who says the effect of the closure of the Straits of Hormuz is the equivalent of the 1973 oil crisis and the 2022 gas crisis, provoked by the invasion of Ukraine, combined.

Industrialised nations are not going to stand around shivering. Capitalism, where it is allowed to, will ride to the rescue

Industrialised nations are not going to stand around shivering. Capitalism, where it is allowed to, will ride to the rescue

The 1973 crisis, he said, removed five million barrels of oil per day from global markets and the Ukraine crisis removed 75 billion cubic metres of natural gas. The current crisis, he says, has removed 11 billion barrels of oil and 140 billion cubic metres of gas. The IEA has started to sound a bit like the World Health Organisation during Covid, calling for government to launch emergency measures, such as lower speed limits on the roads and restrictions on air travel in order to save........

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