{"id":529744,"date":"2026-03-11T19:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529744\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:20:09","slug":"wealthy-nations-pledge-record-release-of-emergency-oil-reserves-in-a-bid-to-calm-surging-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529744\/","title":{"rendered":"Wealthy nations pledge record release of emergency oil reserves in a bid to calm surging prices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PARIS (AP) \u2014 A group representing many of the world’s wealthiest countries agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the effects of the Iran war<\/a> on energy markets and the halt of cargo shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The International Energy Agency said it will make 400 million barrels of oil available<\/a> from its members\u2019 emergency reserves, which is more than double the 182.7 million barrels that the IEA’s 32 member countries released in 2022 in response to Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,\u201d said Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA. \u201cBut, to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has attacked commercial ships<\/a> across the Persian Gulf in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mount<\/a> and effectively stopping cargo traffic in the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean. Iran has also targeted oil fields and refineries<\/a> in Gulf Arab nations, aiming to generate enough global economic pain<\/a> to pressure the U.S. and Israel to end their strikes.<\/p>\n

According to the IEA, export volumes of crude and refined products are currently at less than 10% of prewar levels. Birol noted that the situation in natural gas markets is also very challenging, with Asia the most severely affected region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are few options to replace the missing LNG cargoes from Qatar and the Emirates,\u201d he said. \u201cGlobal energy supply has been reduced by around 20%.”<\/p>\n

A push to lower the price at the pumps<\/p>\n

The IEA’s announcement came a day after energy ministers from the Group of Seven \u2014 the leading industrialized nations of Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Britain \u2014 met in Paris to look at ways to bring down prices. It also came just before G7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, met Wednesday via videoconference.<\/p>\n

During his introductory remarks during Wednesday’s video call, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the IEA decision to release emergency oil stocks, saying it is \u201cvery important\u201d to do everything possible to increase global production and that the 400 million barrels amounted to the equivalent of \u201c20 days of the volume being exported through the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amount pledged by the G7 nations alone comprises 70% of the total, including 14.5 million barrels France will contribute, Macron said, noting that the IEA decision was prepared at the G7 level.<\/p>\n

Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University\u2019s Hydrogen Initiative, said the release would have \u201ca short-term stabilizing effect,\u201d but that it would diminish if the war persists and the Strait of Hormuz remains essentially at a standstill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a silver bullet to solve everything,\u201d Sonin said. \u201cYou have to solve the underlying problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Crosby, a vice president of oil analytics at Sparta, which tracks oil trading, said as big as the release is, it amounts to \u201ca little Band-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scenario was always written off by large parts of the industry: In case we get to the scenario of where there\u2019s a war with Iran, the U.S. Navy will ensure that Hormuz doesn\u2019t stay closed,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cAnd then we got there, and it\u2019s closed. … It\u2019s a complete disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oil follows snaking journeys that can take weeks to go from drill sites to gas pumps. It must pass through refineries, where it is turned to fuel, before it is shipped off via pipelines and tankers to terminals, and then on to gas stations.<\/p>\n

Because of this, no single decision has an immediate impact.<\/p>\n

But Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said the release of reserves will calm markets and prevent wild price swings and could lead to lower prices at the pump in the next week or so. Still, a trade-off is involved by tapping reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re depleting stocks now. That\u2019s always the catch-22,\u201d Medlock said. \u201cYou\u2019re selling them today but that means you can\u2019t sell them tomorrow because they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Member countries pledge help<\/p>\n

Germany, Austria and Japan said earlier Wednesday that they would release parts of their oil reserves<\/a> in response to the IEA’s request for members to release 400 million barrels.<\/p>\n

The IEA reserves were established in 1974 following the Arab oil embargo, and IEA member countries currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s economy ministry, Katherina Reiche, said the IEA asked Germany to release 2.64 million tons \u2014 roughly 19.7 million barrels \u2014 of its oil reserves.<\/p>\n

She said it would take a couple of days before the delivery of the first quantities.<\/p>\n

\u201cGermany stands behind the IEA\u2019s most important principle of mutual solidarity,\u201d Reiche said.<\/p>\n

The German government also said it will introduce a measure to allow gas stations in Germany to raise fuel prices no more than once a day. The federal government wants to introduce this as quickly as possible, Reiche said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear how much oil Austria was releasing.<\/p>\n

Starting Monday in Austria, price increases at gas stations will be allowed only three times a week, said the country\u2019s economy minister, Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer. He said Austria was releasing part of its emergency oil reserve and extending the national strategic gas reserve, adding: \u201cOne thing is clear: in a crisis, there must be no crisis winners at the expense of commuters and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

IEA nations have released emergency stocks on five previous occasions: During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, during the Libyan civil war in 2011, and twice after the Russian invasion of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press reporters Matt Sedensky and Cathy Bussewitz in New York, and John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Samuel Petrequin And Kirsten Grieshaber, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 A group representing many of the world’s wealthiest countries agreed Wednesday to release the largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[169654,45,49,48,46,207977,16800,10816,22230,207981,207978,3241,207976,207979,172000,207980],"class_list":["post-529744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-barrels-of-oil","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-emergency-oil","tag-energy-markets","tag-germany","tag-international-energy-agency","tag-katherina-reiche","tag-natural-gas-markets","tag-oil","tag-oil-reserves","tag-oil-rich-region","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-wealthiest-countries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}