The current oil and gas crisis triggered by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is “more serious than the ones in 1973, 1979, and 2002 together”, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Le Figaro newspaper, Reuters reports.

“The world has never experienced a disruption to energy supply of such magnitude,” he said in an interview with the French newspaper released today.

He said the European countries, as well as Japan, Australia and others, will suffer, but the countries most at risk were developing nations, which will suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation.