Global energy agency: 400 million oil barrels to be brought out of reserves due to war

The International Energy Agency says its member countries will unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves — the biggest such release ever — to ease the impact of the Middle East war.

“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 says in a statement.

The IEA says the release was unanimously agreed on by 32 member countries, with timing to be set out in due course. The Paris-based IEA makes its comments as French President Emmanuel Macron chairs a meeting of G7 leaders that will discuss the issue.

Germany’s Economy Minister Katherina Reiche had earlier confirmed reports of the 400-million-barrel figure and said her country would participate in the release. The US and Japan would be the largest contributors to the IEA release, she added.

“Pressure came mainly from the US government which wants this release,” an EU diplomat said, speaking before the IEA statement.

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomes reports of the planned release.

“This is the perfect time to think about releasing some of those to take some pressure off of the global price,” he says in an interview with Fox News.

Burgum says, however, he does not believe the world is facing an energy shortage.

“We’ve got a transit problem, which is temporary,” he says. “You have a temporary transit problem that we’re resolving militarily and diplomatically, which we can resolve and will resolve.”