EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen has said that Europe is facing a “very serious situation” with no clear end in sight, Politico reported.
The Iran has closed one of the world’s key oil trade routes in retaliation to joint US-Israeli strikes carried out on key sites across the country since February 28.
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The Strait of Hormuz, through which about one fifth of all global oil traded passes, has been a contentious point in the conflict. Oil tankers have regularly been the target of Iranian attacks in the strait, sparking widespread panic over the future of global oil supply.
Since the first strikes on Iran at the end of February, oil and gas prices have soared as much as 70 percent, Politico reported.
Speaking after a meeting of the EU’s 27 energy ministers on Tuesday, March 31, Mr Jørgensen said that even if peace comes tomorrow, “still we will not go back to normal in the foreseeable future.”
“The more you can do to save oil, especially diesel, especially jet fuel, the better we are off,” he said.
Jørgensen urged member countries to follow the advice of the International Energy Agency.
This, he said, included “work from home where possible, reduce highway speed limits by ten kilometers [an hour], encourage public transport, alternate private car access … increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices.”
He also urged EU countries to urgently roll out renewables and become energy independent.