YouSaid · the spoken record

Fatih Birol

lines on the record: 47
first: 2026-04-01
most recent: 2026-04-01
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Story in my mind, not the similarity, which is not similar left in the Champions League via still the IEA, still the champion in the energy world. So this is a small difference there.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, this one similarity and one nut similarity. We are, I mean, you may think IEA talks with the world leaders and when we make a report, you just mention everybody talks about this. I mean, there are 18 reports like that. There are not many interested in the others, but when is the report coming? What is the prediction? It is three or five. We are an organization with a core budget of 22 million euros. I mean, this is nothing, 22 million euros. And the other people making the projections and other work 10 times, 20 times, 100 times more than us, with a very small budget, we made miracles in my view. Why? Because we have excellent teamwork. This is similarity with Bodoglimp. And for the colleagues who don't know Bodhimpt is a Norwegian football team which wrote a history.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Helping the developing countries in terms of the eight. Norway is there, and your prime minister, when I run a program on the clean cooking in Africa, he was there to support me. So I think Norway is doing a good job and also in domestic.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is completely up to the Norwegian government and Norwegian people to decide. But I want to say a few things because I don't know if you know Norway a bit. I visit Norway a lot and I like the Norwegian energy people and I like also the Norwegian football bodha glimpse. This is a team that is very similar to how I run the IEA by the way. I can tell you more about this. When I talk with my Norwegian friends, I have a lot of I said that you feel so guilty for no reason. So you are a country which provides energy security. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Norway was there to support Europe. You are in terms of climate change Norway is one of the countries who has a very ambitious program. In terms of”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How Fossil fuel production. I mean, we were right in how the gas demand was. We were completely right on the oil front, for example. We said that oil demand will slow down because of the China slowing down its economy and the penetration of electric cars. Coal visit plateau, this plateau, renewables, we saw that renewables are growing very strongly. So it is the reason we, instead of making predictions, there are so many uncertainties, we make different scenarios. If you go this way, this is the result and these are the consequences, but if you want to go this way, these are the results and these are the consequences. We have different projections and different options for the policymakers around the world.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we don't pretend to get everything right. We just put the data on the table if we are wrong. We say we were wrong, we change it. If we are right, we don't underline too much. I tell my colleagues, I have a slogan, a motto, data always wins. Sometimes it takes some time, but at the end of the day, data always wins. We put the data and the facts on the table, the governments and the investors industry to decide.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, we got a lot of critics. This is our daily life from investors, from governments. Some people unlock the opposite of what you said, that we are too optimistic when it comes to clean energy, and it is good to hear your balancing view from you saying that we were too pessimistic. So what we are doing is, Nikolai, we have different projects, different scenarios and different options. And what we have said in the past, we were once 10 years ago, we were rather conservative in terms of penetration of solar power. China surprised everybody. It is not the world, but China surprised everybody with their thing. But except for that, I think we got today's solar, wind, everything, nuclear power, oil, gas, everything.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The soft part of the thing. And the second one is the availability and the price of electricity. Maybe I am an agic, I exercise too much, but if you don't have a lot of electricity and if you don't have it cheap and if you don't have it quick, then you may be a bit behind your competitors. So the countries who have a lot of electricity, cheap electricity, able to bring it to the data centers will be a few steps in front of the others and I see that Europe has to work a lot in the second part, technologies part okay, but also in the electricity part maybe harder than US and much harder than China.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Definitely. Nicola, I don't know how much you know about IEA. We are, in fact, a modest, really modest organization, if we wish, we can talk about the IEA. But We have chosen four years ago AI to be a key topic to focus. Why? Very simple. Because there is no AI without electricity. Full stop. So one data center, just one medium-sized data center, consumes electricity as much as a town with 100,000 households. And you need electricity 24-7. And there is a big race in AI. There are three big guys here, US, China, and Europe. There are other guys as well, but these are three big ones. And in my view, AI is perhaps the most consequential technological innovation of humanity up to now. My personal view. And who will win this race among these three will be determined by two factors. One is the technology.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Europe bashing Europe pessimism. I also think that Europe has very strong economic fundamentals. Being a 450 million single market, being a democracy, being in a continent which attracts a lot of investments, exports, imports, trade, I think with the right policies in terms of the industrial policies, combined with the right energy policies, Europe can go through this difficult times.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think Europe's competitiveness is at stake and I believe there are some legacy industries in Europe that we, European governments, need to support this way or another. But some of them May not be able to compete with the others, especially those very energy intensive ones. Because from today to tomorrow, this price differential in terms of energy will not change. But Europe on one hand, in my view, should support some of the selected important legacy industries, but at the same time should have a roadmap for tomorrow's industries and push them strongly. Tomorrow's industries ranging from the artificial intelligence to clean energy technologies and others. So we have two jobs to do in European view.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of the world. In some countries, it may be different in terms of combustion engines, maybe in some parts of North America, in Latin America, but globally, when I look at the biggest markets, Asia especially, including developing Asia, developing Asia, I think the electric cars will be penetrating the car markets even faster than it was before after this crisis.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Accelerate this, but how and when Europe will follow this trend is under discussion, but I believe if the European companies want to be still leading companies in the world and they still want to be, if they still want to be part of the competition globally, the future is electric. And I'm saying cars, but soon if we make another podcast in two years of time, we will talk about trucks, electric trucks. It will come also very soon. I follow this very closely, Chinese making a lot of advancements here. So therefore, in my view, the future of transportation sector is electric in most parts.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, um, I will give you one number. Sorry if I give you too many numbers because I'm a man of data. So this is just to, so five years ago, 5% of all the cars sold in the world was electricity. 5% five years ago. And last year, it was 25% of all the cars sold in the Vertase Electric. This will go very quickly. This will go very quickly. China is the leader, of course, by far. European car manufacturers, of course, may have some time, need some flexibility for sure, but it is very clear for me. It is very clear for me the transportation sector's future is electric. And what happened back to beginning of our discussion, Nikolai, what happened in Middle East, the war, in my view, will only”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Batch and I am in discussion with the European governments, and I see that Europe is now looking at this option, the advanced new battery technologies to be one of the front runners, and I think this will be a good thing for European. Economic security and competitiveness.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nikolai will be the major technology department and we follow about 600 technologies on a day-to-day basis. What is their market position, how much they are advanced, how economics they are, penetration, deployment. If you ask me, Fatty, choose one of them. You have a magic vent. You touch it and it becomes tomorrow economic and widely used around the world. Which one you choose? There are many of them, but I would choose batteries. Why batteries? Because it will change many things. It will change the renewable dynamics, it will change the dynamics of the transportation sector. But Europe is behind China today. But for the advanced batteries, there is a chance for Europe to come.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which is mainly now solar is manufactured in China. But 25 years ago, it was Europe that started the solar panels, building solar panels, but then they dropped the ball and China took it over. And now China is dominating the game. So these three mistakes for Europe, the reliance or reliance on Russia, the Tony Arb back to nuclear power, and such important technologies like solar dropping the ball costed us a lot in terms of our competitiveness, in terms of our economic security, and I would say foreign policy.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The coalition here, and the government program was bringing the nuclear share from 75% down to 50%. At that time, they asked me the French newspapers, what do you think? It is something like selling the Eiffel Tower to somebody else. I mean, this is because the national asset of France. Many countries made mistake. So this was the second mistake. And third one is today when you look at the word Nikolai, I am doing every day. 2025 of all power plants installed in the world, of all of them, 75% was solar.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nicola for Europe, I think we met in Europe three historically strategic mistakes And one of them was I mentioned to you over reliance. On one single country for a very important commodity, which is gas and Russia. Second one is the nuclear. In the end of 1990s, about one third of the European electricity came from nuclear, and it is going down now about 15%. We turn our back in Europe to nuclear power. It was a historical mistake for me. Now we are in every country, even in France, when President Macron took”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Cold scenario is in fact China scenario because about 55% of the coal today is used in China, 45%, everybody else put together. And coal demand was more or less flat in the last few years and we were expecting to be flat and slightly going down. But with this crisis we are in, I wouldn't be surprised if we see uptick in the coal use around the world, starting with China but also other parts of the world. In the United States we see the coal uses rebounding and I wouldn't be surprised and even in European countries in this rather urgent situation countries would Make use of their coal reserves.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the issue is today, unlike we thought or the word taught in the past, the issue is not building power plants because solar, wind or gas, whatever you build is not so difficult. The difficult part is now we are not coping with as the world, not only Europe, as the world is building grids. This is the Achilles hill of the age of electricity, in my view.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you have to work. Of course, I don't talk about any company, but I think if we want grids and grids related investment to be stronger, there is a need for governments to see the need and make it attractive for the investors. And currently, in the last few years, unfortunately, governments didn't The governments give a push to building renewables or power plants, but they forgot that we need grids to bring this electricity from this power plants to the household, to the industry. It is time for them, but if the government is taking seriously, they have to put the investment framework to make it attractive for the investors and they have to facilitate, simplify the licensing and permitting processes. These two things. Would be needed.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What's the biggest One thing is a more innocent one, government failure, not having enough grids. Because last year the world built huge amount of renewables, added huge amount of renewables in the grids, but four times of this renewables which were added to the grids and our electric system was waiting idle because there were not enough grid capacity. They finished the solar panel between, but they don't have any grids. This is one risk I see and one problem. The other problem in addition to grid problem is, as I mentioned, the cyber security, cyber attacks on the grids. This is my very, and our numbers show that they are both in terms of their intensity and in terms of their frequency, they are increasing.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it depends on how you do it because if you make an electrification of the energy systems, we will still use oil and gas many years to come, but I don't know if you heard Nicola. I'm saying since almost one and a half years, we are entering the age of electricity because electricity demand is growing two times faster than the total energy demand. It is coming the AI, the data centers drivers, the electric cars and everything, we need to build grids, resilient grids around the world, but this would mean one of my worries is the increasing number of cyber attacks and the power systems that we have to be careful because the world is becoming a dangerous place. And the energy system is unfortunately at the target of many bad actors in the world.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Especially in Asia, the electrification transportation sector, this will come. And I also expect the renewables will be growing with batteries even faster. In addition to those, I wouldn't be surprised in some cases temporary, in some cases even longer term. Coal may make a big push in China, in Indonesia, in India as a response to high natural gas prices. So these are some areas that we may think is a response to this crisis more nuclear electrification, transportation sector, faster renewables and maybe coal and other domestic energy production.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Before the 1970s, a car, an average car, needed about 20 liters to drive 100 kilometers. But afterwards, fuel efficiency standards came as a response to this crisis, and very soon it was 10 liters you need to use for 100 kilometers. It was soft. The third one was related to also, of course, Norway and other countries, domestic production, the North Sea, the biggest growth in North Sea came as a response to this oil crisis because the higher prices and the governments gave a tax incentives and the”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is too early to give a very specific thing, but what I think is when I look at the 1970s, I look at these things very carefully, there were at least three important many changes, but three important changes. One, nuclear power. Nuclear power, there was a big wave as a response to oil crisis, big wave of nuclear built, about 170 gigawatts. And this is about 40% of the nuclear power plants we have today were built as a response to the oil crisis in Europe, in Japan, Korea, US, Canada, and elsewhere. This was number one. Number two, in the car industry.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are taking some short term measures we will take, but there will be some long-term structural reactions to this issue in the crisis. In the energy world.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the worst case scenario is the state of Hormus continuous to be closed and this may well lead to major damage on the global economy and this damage might be the worst for the emerging and developing countries which has nothing to do with this problem, creating this problem. They are not a part of this problem this way or another but they may suffer the most. This is for me the worst case. Remember the 1970s the many countries fell into the foreign debt spiral and this had many implications economic, political, social implications. I am more worried that front but I hope this will never be the case and Before too long, state of hormones starts to run and we can start to recover. But again, Nikolai, we have to also think worldwide”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Will recover. So there is a lack of gas industry in general, Middle East countries need to make a lot of effort to regain their reputation as a reliable supplier and this may take some time, but they did some wonders in magic in the past and they may make it again. But I would definitely distinguish the countries with the lower capacity such as Iraq vis- ⁇-vis others.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the Middle East countries Did suffer will suffer. And when I say Middle East, I may maybe make a distinction between countries like Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain. They will hit the most. The other countries, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf countries, Emirates, Kuwait, they will recover quickly. Let me just tell you, Iraq, for example, Iraq, 90% of the government revenues come from selling oil. And today, Iraq revenues came to very, very low levels. And with this government revenues, they pay the salaries of the people working there and the pensions. And it's about 15 million people. In Iraq to recover will be much more difficult than the Saudis or the Emirates.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the LNG is in general gas industry. May suffer a bit of a reputational damage. Why I am saying this is that the gas is presented and rightly so as a reliable, affordable and flexible option. But now, 2022, Russia gas, and now today, in my view, may cast a long shadow. And the gas industry. So I think gas industry has to work hard in order to prove that they are still reliable, they are, they will be affordable and they are flexible. I think a few countries fuel make lose some credit, some image from what happened and the gas industry may suffer. I don't know if the temporary or not, but I see this happening. Of course, when we look at the structural terms, there will be some others who can win from this crisis in the long term. In my personal view, this may well reshape the global energy markets in the next years to come.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think. For three reasons, I told them. First one is technically it is not almost not possible. So the Nord Stream 1, there was a sabotage and it is technically not intact. Nord Stream 2 didn't get the licensing yet from Germans. Others are too small. Economically, the Russian gas was mainly indexed oil prices and with this high oil prices we have now Russian gas will be also expensive. And the third and the I am telling this nuclei since almost 25 years. I was chief economist before in this organization. I'm saying since that time, over-reliance on Russia was a big mistake. We made this mistake. We paid for it. But one time it's a mistake. If you make it second time, it's not a mistake.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are based on the marginal cost of natural gas prices, electricity prices will go up. So we will have in Europe high gas prices and high electricity prices. And therefore, I think it is, in my view, it is important that the governments in Europe do support a vulnerable parts of the population, targeted support, but a temporary one. What I'm afraid is Nikolai, maybe just making one step under politics, which is not the professional occupation, but I have to say this. What I am afraid in Europe is that the This high energy prices. May give a fertile grant for extreme Political thinking to abuse just before some of the important elections going to happen in Europe. So just a side remark, but I think it is important to register here”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Than the others, it is an Asia issue, it is a Middle East issue. No, no, no. Come on. Energy markets are global. So the first issue is Europeans needed to understand, the governments, that it's a major issue coming to Europe very soon. So we had to shake up the European governments. And what is happening in Europe is that the gas Europe is buying a lot of gas from the spot markets. And today the Asian government, Asian buyers, since they cannot have the LNG coming from the Middle East, they are jumping on the spot markets. It is where Europe normally gets. So therefore, the prices of gas is going up in Europe. And since the European electricity prices”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think if it is done. In a targeted way and in a temporary way, this may well be a solution. You know what is the problem in Europe? There are many problems in Europe, but one of the problems is because of this. First of all, Europe was the, I talked with many government leaders around the world, but I think Europe reflects was a bit slower.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think currently it is stabilizing, but as I said, this is only, I mean, this is 400 million bias is the largest we ever made in the history. It is two times more than, for example, when Russia invaded Ukraine as a result of this crisis. But I have to be very honest, Nikolai, this is only helping to reduce the pain. It will not occur. The cure is opening up the state of hormones. This is the single most important issue. We are just helping to reduce the pain and gaining some time, maybe in other words, if I may say so. But I don't claim that this will be a solution our stock release.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we are assessing the market on a daily, if not hourly basis 24-7. If we think there is a need crude or product, we may well intervene. I will make a suggestion to governments in that direction. The biggest problem today is the lack of jet fuel and diesel. These are the main challenges and we are seeing it already in Asia, but soon it comes to, I think in April it will come to Europe or maybe beginning of May. And therefore I am assessing the situation with my colleagues and when the time is ripe I will make the decision to make a suggestion to the governments.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Will come through the inflation, and then I think it will cut the economic growth in many countries, and especially in emerging and developing countries where they don't have the hard currencies, they may be even bigger difficulty. We may well see Nikolai in many countries, the rationing of energy may be coming soon.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In April, April will be much worse than March. Why I explain you? Because in March there were already some cargoes, both oil and gas, already left before the war, the Middle East, and they are still coming to the ports, coming to the countries, and they are still bringing oil or LNG and others. And in March, we already benefited from this. But in April, there is nothing. So it means even the modest estimates we have now, the loss of oil in April will be twice the loss of oil in March. On top of that, we have the LNG and others.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But if I tell you one technique, Nicola, we talk about Europe a lot in the newspapers, Japan, I don't know, Australia, Korea, elsewhere, but the biggest problem today I see is the emerging developing countries. They are hit the worst. The countries that are importing oil and gas and their economies, especially now starting with Asia, and it will come, of course, very soon to.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it is one of the vulnerabilities of the global energy system, both for oil and gas. And we are trying to look at other altitudes. One of them was, you may know that on 11th of March I announced that we released 400 million barrels of oil to the markets, both crude oil and products as soon as it was heard prices went down by $18. But of course, afterwards, there were many statements here and it rebounded. We have suggested many governments to take some demand side measures. It is not easy, but it is very important such as working from home in some cases. In some cases, reducing speed limits for cars and others. And I believe there is a need for in some cases some additional measures to support financially, especially the vulnerable parts of the population.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I was very happy that many governments understood how serious it is. And I was very happy to see that the countries are not taking measures, the G7, G20, the Europeans, Japanese. I was last week with the Japanese Prime Minister Takeichi and the day before with the Prime Minister Albenezi in Australia. Asia hit the worst for the time being, but it will come to Europe and elsewhere. So countries are now aware of the problem and we are discussing how to tackle this situation best. Of course, Nikolai, I should tell you that the measures we are taking, IE is taking all the governments are taking are important, but. The single most important solution is opening up the state of Hermes.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Russian gas crisis, which means the current crisis is more than all these three crises put together. Plus, if I may, in addition to this oil and gas, there are many vital commodities very important for the global economy, petrochemicals, fertilizers, helium, sulfur. They are very important for the global supply chains and this comes on top of that. If I say one more thing, we are following the damages on the assets, energy assets in the region. And according to our database, 40 key assets have been damaged. Some of them are light, but some of them are severe and very severe. It will take some time. To get back. So, it is the reason looking at these numbers matrix, as you say, I decided to make statements, make the people understand that we are heading towards a major, major disruption and the biggest in the history up to now.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, you know, we have many energy crises, unfortunately, but when you look at the last couple of decades, three of them stand. One of them, the 73 Okris, 79 oil crisis, and 20-22, Russia invasion of Ukraine and gas. So, when you look at the oil crisis 73-79, in both of them, we lost each about 5 million barrels per day of oil. So five plus five, it is about 10. And we all know that this oil crisis led to global recession in many countries, developing countries, foreign debt spiral. And today, as it stands now, we lost 12 million barrels per day, so more than two of these oil crises put together. In terms of natural gas, when Russia cut the gas, we lost around 75 BCM of gas, and now the amount of gas we lost now is higher than the”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or so to come up with some numbers, make the people understand that this is a serious issue for all of us. And the way to deal with this is, first, we recognize what a big problem it is. And I try to describe what the problem is. And I think it was, in my view, a good move that it gave a big drive to policymakers to discuss more intensely about the situation.”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know Nikolai Very intergovernmental organization we work for the government's public institution after the war has started since there are many market related dynamics. I told my colleagues and myself three weeks we didn't make any public statement the newspapers with the journalists even though we receive as usual lots of lots of requests except for I made a statement about the oil release of the IEA this is the other story but I saw that the decision makers governments in Europe but around the world didn't understand how big the problem is and can be not for the energy sector but for the global economy so it is the reason I decided it was a week”
2026-04-01 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Fatih Birol: Global Energy Under Pressure, Europe's Mistakes and the Age of Electricity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source