Rescuing the oil market: 32 countries take historic step
12 March 00:09
Member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) will release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves amid reduced supplies due to the situation in the Middle East. This was reported by CNBC, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The IEA has not specified when the reserves will hit the market. The organization said that the reserves will be released at a time that suits the circumstances of each of the 32 member countries.
“The challenges we face in the oil market are unprecedented in scale, so I am very pleased that IEA member countries have responded with unprecedented collective action,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
Analysts note that even if IEA reserves are released at the maximum available rate, they will still not be able to compensate for the 20 million barrels per day that passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war in the Middle East began.
In total, IEA members currently have more than 1.2 billion barrels of emergency oil reserves at their disposal, as well as 600 million barrels of industrial reserves held under government obligations.
The last release of IEA reserves was 182 million barrels. This occurred in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to stabilize global oil markets.
The IEA is a body within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The agency provides advice and analysis on energy security in member countries, which include most developed countries in Europe, as well as the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Australia.
