The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday said that its 32 member countries voted unanimously to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergsncy stock to ease the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, triggered by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the latter’s retaliation.
The move is aimed at offseting the oil supply lost through the “effective closure” of the Strait of Hormuz, IEA executive director Fatih Birol said.
“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,” said Birol.
The emergency stock release is said to be the largest in the IEA’s history and it will be made available to the market over a “timeframe that is appropriate to the national circumstances” of member countries.
The is the sixth such ocassion when the IEA has approved the release of emergency oil stocks. Previously, the IEA had allowed it in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022.
According to the IEA, its 32 members hold a combined emergency stockpiles of more than 1.2 billion barrels. An additional 600 million barrels of industry stocks are held under government obligation.
Iran attacks ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, says not a single litre of oil will be allowed
The announcement came after Iran struck three commercial ships, including the India-bound and Thailand-flagged cargo vessel Mayuree Naree in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Express Room,” owned by Israel and flying the Liberian flag, as well as the container ship “Mayuree Naree,” were fired upon and stopped by Iranian fighters after ignoring warnings and alerts from the IRGC Navy and illegally insisting on passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said.
Tehran also warned that it will not allow a single litre of crude oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and reach the US, Israel and their partners in the wake of Israeli-American attacks.
“Any vessel or tanker bound to them will be a legitimate target,” a spokesman for Tehran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said.
“Get ready for the oil barrel to be at $200 because the oil price depends on the regional security, which you have destabilised,” the spokesman added.