New IEA boss faces world energy landscape in flux

Paris

THE new head of the International Energy Agency faces dilemmas that challenge the purpose of the body set up to protect the interests of the West against the power of Opec in the 1970s.

Fatih Birol of Turkey - the IEA's respected chief economist - takes over on Tuesday, replacing Dutch politician Maria van der Hoeven, a former economy minister whose four-year term has expired. "There is a lot of expectation on Birol - not just external performance, but crucially internal upgrade and institutional strategy," said one official on condition of anonymity.