IEA Seals Historic 400M Bbl Reserves Release Amid Iran War

SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) – The International Energy Agency (IEA) said its 32 oil-consuming member countries have unanimously approved the release 400 million bbl from their joint reserves to help mitigate the oil supply crisis triggered by the Iran war.

It will be the largest stockpile release ever by the IEA, accounting for a third of the total 1.2 billion bbl in emergency reserves held by the agency on behalf of the world’s oil consumers.

The IEA, created in 1974 in response to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo that caused the first major shock to global oil supplies, has coordinated five stockpile release prior to this – one each in 1991, 2005 and 2011, and twice 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,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement issued Wednesday.

The decision on the 400 million bbl release came after a whirlwind of meetings in recent days between the IEA and finance ministers from the Group of Seven countries, which typically lead consumer countries responses to oil market challenges.

Global energy supplies have been disrupted since the start of the Iran war on February 28, after Tehran shuttered the Strait of Hormuz that provides passage to approximately 21 million bpd of petroleum liquids and began firing missiles at fellow oil-producing neighbors in OPEC.

Separately, OPEC said in a monthly report issued Wednesday that it was too early to determine the Iran war’s full impact on the global economy. However, the producer group noted that Saudi Arabia had increased its oil production in February to 10.882 million bpd. The kingdom’s supply to the market itself reached 10.111 million bpd during that period. The ramp-up was part of a contingency plan established ahead of the latest Middle East conflict to help secure market stability.