IEA head urges "revolution" to fight oil crisis

LONDON (Reuters) - An "energy revolution" to cut demand is necessary to combat the world's third energy crisis in 35 years, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said the current oil price shock was unique because demand has remained robust despite prices climbing to $135 a barrel two weeks ago.

In contrast, global consumption fell after the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the Iranian revolution of 1979 as countries turned to more energy efficient transportation and power plants.

"We are in a third energy crisis," he said during the Reuters Energy Summit.

"Our response should be an energy revolution. We have to change dramatically the demand side by efficiency and new technologies."

The IEA sees an increase in world oil demand this year as consumption in emerging economies outweighs a slowdown in the United States and Europe.

"In China, India the Middle East, demand is very, very robust. We haven't seen any indication that there is a slow down," he said.

In the IEA's outlook report last month, the adviser to 27 industrialized nations forecast global demand will rise by 1.03 million barrels per day.

But that is down significantly from its estimates a year ago due to the economic slowdown in the United States.

Tanaka has urged industrialized countries to speed up plans to boost automobile fuel efficiency standards, improve efficiency of power plants and take hard action on heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Even with these changes, he believed oil prices were likely to remain at historically high levels because of a variety of factors, including limited spare capacity and stock levels.

"Oil prices may not easily go back to the level of two, three years ago, probably that is very unlikely," he said.

(Editing by Peg Mackey)