The 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed Wednesday to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves, the largest coordinated stock release in the agency’s 52-year history.
The release is intended to address supply disruptions caused by the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Oil flows through the strait have fallen to less than 10 percent of pre-conflict levels, the IEA said, forcing producers across the region to shut in or curtail output.
“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.
The release more than doubles the IEA’s previous record of 182 million barrels, set in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is the sixth coordinated action in IEA history.
The announcement did not stem the rise in the price of oil on Wednesday. By midday in New York, oil prices were trading more than four percent higher.