Member nations of the International Energy Agency have agreed to release an additional 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves, bolstering the Biden administration’s decision to release 180 million barrels from its own stockpile.
The coordinated move was announced Wednesday and is intended to address oil supply disruption caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol confirmed the move Wednesday in a tweet, saying more details will be made public “soon.”
The @IEA is moving ahead with a collective oil stock release of 120 million barrels (including 60 million barrels contributed by the US as part of its overall draw from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve).
More details of specific contributions will be made public soon.
— Fatih Birol (@fbirol) April 6, 2022
The announcement comes just one week after President Joe Biden announced the United States would release 180 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the largest-ever release from the stockpile since the stockpile’s creation in 1974.
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Bloomberg reported that IEA member countries, which include many European and North American nations, also expect Russian oil production to decline by roughly one-quarter in April, as Moscow prepares to face global ramifications for invading Ukraine.
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The war in Ukraine has whipsawed the global oil market in recent weeks, sending futures for the international benchmark, Brent Crude, to nearly $140 a barrel last month, though prices have since fallen sharply.
