IEA to release record amount of oil reserves due to Iran war
The 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) plan to release a record 400 million barrels of crude oil in response to the Iran war, the agency said on Wednesday.
The decision followed an extraordinary meeting of IEA member governments and aims to stabilize oil markets strained by the conflict.
“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
“Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”
Germany had already announced it would release about 19.5 million barrels of oil as part of the coordinated action.
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said the move sends a clear signal to markets aimed at curbing high risk premiums and speculative gains.
Berlin has also announced that petrol stations in Germany will only be allowed to raise fuel prices once per day.
The war in the Middle East has severely disrupted energy markets.
Transport of energy supplies from producers in the Gulf through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz has largely been blocked amid security concerns.
Reports that Iran may have laid naval mines in the waterway have further heightened fears about global energy supplies.
Oil prices have risen sharply since the start of the conflict. On Wednesday morning, the price of Brent crude rose more than 5% to about $92 per barrel amid fears of prolonged supply disruptions.
IEA members hold about 1.2 billion barrels in strategic reserves and an additional 600 million barrels in industry stocks. Coordinated releases are rare and have only occurred a handful of times since the agency was founded in the 1970s, most recently in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The International Energy Agency is mainly made up of advanced industrial economies that cooperate on energy security and policy. It has countries are mostly in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
The large Middle Eastern oil producers, as well as Russia, are not members.
