On March 11, the 32 Member countries of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East, according to a statement released on the IEA’s website. The decision comes after “an extraordinary meeting” between the IEA’s member states the day before. The previous largest release of this nature was 180 million barrels, released following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“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 IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “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,” Birol said.
He said the conflict around Iran is having “major implications for energy security, energy affordability, and the global economy.” “This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” he added.
