Fatih Birol, Executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned Thursday that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel supplies, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Birol spoke with AP in Paris, France, over the ongoing disruptions in fuel supply and its prices derived by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz through the ongoing war in Iran, which Birol described as “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced.” The IEA chief warned that there could be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the ongoing conflict.
“In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits.’ It’s a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world,” he said, and added that the impact will be “higher petrol prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices.”
Birol told AP that “everybody is going to suffer,” without a settlement of the Iran war that permanently reopens the Strait of Hormuz and argued, “Some countries may be richer than the others. Some countries may have more energy than the others, but no country, no country is immune to this crisis.”
“In Europe, we have maybe six weeks or so [of] jet fuel left,” Birol said. “If we are not able to open the Strait of Hormuz… I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel.”
“Many government leaders tell me that if Hormuz is not open until (the) end of May, many countries — starting from the weaker economies — are going to face huge challenges, and this will go from the high inflation numbers to coming close to slow growth or even to recession in some cases,” the IEA chief added.
Dutch airline KLM and U.K.-based budget carrier easyJet told AP on Thursday that they were not experiencing any current fuel shortages, and reportedly abstained from commenting on Birol’s warnings. The U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines, told AP that it was ware of Europe’s “potential jet fuel supply issue,” noting that while it is monitoring the situation, it did not expect “immediate impacts.”
Euronews reports that the Airports Council International Europe wrote to the European Commission saying shortages of jet fuel could begin at the beginning of May if tankers do not begin sailing through the Hormuz.
Three European sources with “knowledge of the situation” told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Friday morning that a preliminary assessment conducted across the continent by cross-referencing internal company projections with data from specialized platforms determined that, starting in June, some airports could introduce fuel rationing “for several weeks.”
Corriere, citing IEA statistics, detailed that air transport in Europe air transport in Europe consumed approximately 1.6 million barrels per day in 2025, of which about 500,000 were imported. 75 percent of all total jet fuel imports came from the Middle East. In contrast, data provided by maritime intelligence firm Kpler indicates that the continent is set to receive an average of 402,000 barrels per day in April — with only 30 percent coming from the Middle East, and as few as “zero barrels” coming from the United Arab Emirates.
Per the newspaper, nearly 40% of April’s jet fuel imports in Europe came from the United States — a statistic that Corriere described as “unusual,” as Europe only imported an average of 3 percent of its jet fuel needs from the U.S. over the past two years.
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