{"id":341738,"date":"2026-03-16T08:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/341738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T08:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:05:10","slug":"japan-begins-release-of-oil-reserves-as-iran-war-sparks-energy-crisis-oil-and-gas-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/341738\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan begins release of oil reserves as Iran war sparks energy crisis | Oil and Gas News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Tokyo\u2019s move comes as oil prices remain elevated amid the effective closure\u00a0of the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a02 mins<\/p>\n<p>info<a class=\"avatar\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/author\/powerj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773648310_142_jp-1730786685-rotated.jpg\"   aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Published On 16 Mar 202616 Mar 2026<\/p>\n<p>Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n<p>share2<\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<p>plus2googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo<\/p>\n<p>Japan has begun releasing oil from its emergency reserves amid the global energy crisis sparked by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran in response to US-Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The release\u00a0was announced on Monday in a notice\u00a0published\u00a0in the\u00a0Japanese government\u2019s official gazette.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>Japanese Prime Minister Sanae\u00a0Takaichi\u00a0last week announced plans to\u00a0unilaterally\u00a0release 80 million barrels of oil\u00a0from stockpiles\u00a0amid supply concerns due to Iran\u2019s threats against shipping\u00a0in the\u00a0strait.<\/p>\n<p>Takaichi announced the move shortly before the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it would coordinate the release of a record 400 million barrels to help cushion the market from the widening fallout of the United States and Israel\u2019s war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the announcement by the Paris-based IEA, oil prices have repeatedly jumped above $100 a barrel during the past week as traders weigh the prospect of prolonged disruption to the critical waterway.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts say prices are likely to continue to rise as long as shipping through the strait, which normally transports about one-fifth of the global oil supply, remains effectively halted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleBodyText_articleBodyContent__17wqE typography_articleBody___5jDr\" data-component=\"paragraph\">Tokyo said on Monday that it had no plans to deploy its navy to the strait after US President Donald Trump called on other countries to help unblock the waterway.<\/p>\n<p>Brent crude, the most important benchmark for global prices, rose as much as 3 percent on Sunday, before easing slightly on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Brent stood at $104.85 a barrel as of 05:45 GMT, up more than 40 percent since the start of the war on February 28.<\/p>\n<p>Japan is one of the world\u2019s largest oil importers, relying on fossil fuels from overseas for about\u00a080 percent of its energy needs.<\/p>\n<p>The East Asian country also has one of the world\u2019s largest oil reserves,\u00a0with enough supply to meet\u00a0254 days\u00a0of domestic consumption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tokyo\u2019s move comes as oil prices remain elevated amid the effective closure\u00a0of the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz. Listen to this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1631,114,184,1435,85,46,1437,43,16755,162198],"class_list":["post-341738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-asia-pacific","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-energy","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}