The Iran war’s disruption to global helium supply is beginning to affect pharmaceutical and medical supply chains, threatening the availability of MRI scanners and other critical medical equipment in hospitals around the world, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned. Fatih Birol, speaking in Canberra, said the crisis had expanded well beyond oil and gas to threaten a range of vital commodities including helium, which was essential for medical imaging technology. He described the overall emergency as equivalent to the combined force of the 1970s twin oil shocks and the Ukraine gas disruption.
Birol said helium was used primarily in MRI machines, which required it in liquid form to cool superconducting magnets to near absolute zero temperatures. A significant shortage of medical-grade helium would force hospitals to reduce MRI availability, affecting diagnostic capacity for cancer, neurological conditions, cardiac disease, and a wide range of other medical conditions. He said this was a humanitarian consequence of the energy crisis that deserved urgent attention from health ministries alongside energy departments.
The conflict began February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran and has since removed 11 million barrels of oil per day and 140 billion cubic metres of gas from world markets. At least 40 Gulf energy assets have been severely damaged, and the Hormuz strait — through which approximately 20 percent of global oil flows — remains closed. The IEA deployed 400 million barrels from strategic reserves on March 11 in its largest emergency action.
Birol confirmed further releases were under consideration and said consultations with governments across three continents were ongoing. He called for demand-side policies including remote work, lower speed limits, and reduced commercial aviation. He met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and said the full breadth of the crisis’s humanitarian consequences demanded coordinated government attention.
Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to Iran to reopen the strait expired without result, and Tehran threatened retaliatory strikes on US and allied energy and water infrastructure. Birol concluded by calling on health ministries around the world to assess their helium reserves and coordinate with energy departments to ensure medical supply chains were prioritized. He said the connection between the Iran energy crisis and hospital capacity was a dimension of the emergency that had not yet received sufficient public or political attention.