The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) sees little chance of a return to normal oil market conditions next year, as the ongoing Middle East war keeps prices high, AFP reports.

“I personally don’t see any credible pathway that 2027 will be a year of normalisation” after the Gulf supply disruptions caused by the US and Israeli attacks on Iran last February, Fatih Birol tells a conference organised by The Financial Times.

“If there’s an overlapping crisis in the Middle East, I cannot exclude that our governments will look at the other options,” Birol tells The FT’s Energy Transition conference. “It’s a big thing, 400 million barrels, but it’s only 20 per cent of the oil we have — 80pc is in the pocket.”

Birol also laments that the war has shifted attention away from the risks of climate change, despite confirmation from scientists that the burning of fossil fuels is a clear cause of global warming.

“Climate change is sliding down in the international policy agenda despite the number, the frequency, and the intensity of extreme weather,” he says. “In a normal world … there’d be more interest, but it is going down.”