The International Energy Agency is poised to call for the largest release of government oil reserves in its history to help calm the oil price shock triggered by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s energy watchdog is expected to call on its 32 members to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of the group\u2019s total government stockpiles and more than double the IEA\u2019s previous biggest release.<\/p>\n
The emergency intervention, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would easily outstrip the 182m barrels of oil put on the market by IEA countries across two releases in 2022 after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the plan, the body\u2019s 32 member states would reportedly have up to 90 days to release oil stocks into the global market, which has lost almost 20m barrels of crude a day because of a block on trade via the strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Paris-based agency is expected to publish its recommendation at 1300 GMT on Wednesday, before a 1400 GMT meeting of G7<\/a> leaders chaired by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n The group of seven leading economies said on Wednesday morning that it supported, in principle, the use of strategic oil reserves to address supply problems and market volatility.<\/p>\n The proposal is said to have first circulated at an emergency meeting on Tuesday<\/a> of energy officials from IEA member states to decide whether to make their emergency stocks available to the market after some of the steepest oil price increases in the market\u2019s history.<\/p>\n G7 energy ministers held a separate remote meeting later that day, along with the head of the IEA, to discuss whether to release the emergency oil stocks<\/a> to try to stabilise the situation.<\/p>\n However, the release could still be delayed if even one IEA member objects at Wednesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n Members of the alliance, which was set up after the Middle East oil crisis in the 1970s, are required to hold at least 90 days\u2019 worth of crude supplies in reserve, which can be released to the market in the event of a supply shock.<\/p>\n In total, IEA members hold more than 1.2bn barrels of public emergency oil stocks and a further 600m barrels of stocks held by industry under government obligation.<\/p>\n The UK held 120 days\u2019 worth of oil stocks at the end of last year, although 100% of this was held by companies in the industry under an agreement with the government. The stocks are held in refineries, oil terminals, power stations, and at offshore fields in the North Sea. About 15% of the stockpile is held in overseas countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.<\/p>\n