IEA’s Birol: No strong upward pressure on oil prices without very serious geopolitical event

By Trend

The best way to ensure security of supply is by producers and consumers working together and the International Energy Agency (IEA) plays a major role in this, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Dr Fatih Birol said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

He pointed out that there is a lot of attention on the Middle East Gulf following a series of incidents, the most dramatic being the attacks on Saudi Arabia on 14 September.

"The incidents remind us that security of supply is very important because significant disruptions to the oil market can cause price spikes, which threaten the health of the global economy. The IEA was created in the 1970s to minimise the risk of economic damage from supply disruptions. In a crisis the IEA assesses the market situation and works with its member governments to decide if a release of emergency stocks is necessary to support the market responses," noted Birol.

IEA executive director said that at the moment the oil market is relatively well-supplied and commercial stocks in the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are at a two-year high close to 3 billion barrels.

"The outlook for demand growth has been revised downwards in recent months due to economic uncertainty. Also, there is a wave of new supply coming on stream from non-OPEC countries in the next few months. This suggests that unless there is a very serious geopolitical event, there should not be strong upward pressure on oil prices," he said.