The world is in the grip of its third oil shock, according to the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency. Speaking at the World Petroleum Conference in Madrid, Nobuo Tanaka told the crowd that the current crisis is different from the oil embargo of 1973 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when there was still a lot of easy oil to be pumped. In its new report, the IEA sharply cut its estimates of future oil supplies, and cited the ageing of existing oil fields and inadequate investment as reasons for the tightening supply.

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