IEA: Restoring oil and gas production in the Middle East will take around two years

Restoring oil and gas production in the Middle East to pre-war levels will take around two years, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

"It will vary from country to country. In Iraq, for example, it will take much longer than in Saudi Arabia," he warned.

"We nevertheless estimate that, overall, returning to pre-war levels will take around two years," he added.

The conflict in the Middle East began in late February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran. The war has crippled shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.

Birol said the market is currently underestimating the consequences of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. He noted that cargoes of oil and gas that set off before the war began have now reached their destinations, easing fuel shortages, Reuters reported.

"But no new tankers were loaded in March," the IEA chief warned.

"If the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen, we must prepare for significantly higher energy prices," he added.