The International Energy Agency ordered the release of the largest volume of government oil reserves in its history — 400 million barrels, a third of the total reserves, The Guardian reported on March 11.
The World Energy Regulatory Authority said that its 32 members unanimously agreed to release this amount of oil from emergency reserves.
This is how the agency is trying to mitigate the shock in the oil market caused by the US and Israeli war with Iran and the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of the world’s oil supplies pass.
Japanese authorities previously said they would release about 80 million barrels of their private and government oil reserves to the market starting March 18. Germany announced that it will disclose 19.51 million barrels of crude oil as part of the IEA release.
The G7 energy ministers said they support in principle the use of strategic oil reserves.
The last time the IEA resorted to this emergency measure was in 2022 after a large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. The regulator then released 182 million barrels of oil to the market.
The global market is losing about 15 million barrels of oil per day due to the cessation of trade through the Strait of Hormuz.