Record 400M oil barrels to be released from emergency stockpiles to curb soaring prices due to Iran war

The International Energy Agency on Wednesday agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil in an attempt to lower prices amid severe supply disruptions from the war in Iran.Its 32 member countries – mostly in Europe, North America and northeast Asia – did not set a timeline for the release, which is more than double the prior record of 182 million barrels from 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“The conflict in the Middle East is having significant impacts on global oil and gas markets, with major implications for energy security, energy affordability and the global economy for oil,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said Wednesday.“I can now announce that IEA countries have unanimously decided to launch the largest-ever release of emergency oil stocks in our agency’s history.”Energy benchmarks have whipsawed in the weeks since the start of joint US and Israeli air strikes on Iran, with West Texas Intermediate crude hitting $87 and Brent crude, nearly $92 on Wednesday.The price of oil has surged as much as 40% – earlier this week nearing $120 a barrel – since the war broke out on Feb.28.The IEA announced the historic release of reserves as an attempt to counteract Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime route that sees 20% of the world’s oil supply pass through.The release is intended to help calm the immediate effects of the supply shocks – but is necessary for tanker traffic to resume through the strait to stabilize oil and gas flows, Birol said Wednesday.A potential blockade of the strait is the kind of scenario that the IEA was created for in 1974 after the Arab oil embargo.Members of the group currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, along with an additional 600 million in mandatory commercial inventories.While a substantial release of reserves is expected to temporarily ease price pressure on oil, there aren’t enough inventories in the world to completely make ...