The planned release is significantly larger than the 182 million barrels that IEA member states released in 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
“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,” said Fatih Birol in a statement on Wednesday.
“Without sufficient routes to market and with no more available storage, Middle East oil producers have started to reduce production,” Birol said. “And we have seen further attacks and damage to energy and energy-related infrastructure. Refinery operations have also been disrupted, with major implications for jet fuel and diesel supplies in particular.”
IEA member countries hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.
Since the US and Israel launched their war on February 28, Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for oil produced by Gulf states, by threatening to attack shipping. About a fifth of global oil and gas supplies transit the waterway.
In response to the US and Israeli attacks, Iran has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab states, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the US and Israel to halt the war.
International benchmark Brent crude oil has surged more than 25 percent since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.
Earlier this week, Brent was trading at $119 a barrel, the first time oil was trading at more than $100 a barrel since 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After the IEA announcement, Brent was trading at more than $90 a barrel, with analysts saying that the record release was insufficient to ease fears of further supply disruptions after attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The proposed release is roughly equal to about four days of global production and 16 days of the volume of crude that transits through the Gulf, Macquarie analysts estimated.
