© REUTERS
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Not only the United States, but more than 30 other countries will also tap into their strategic oil reserves and “put tens of millions of additional barrels of oil on the market” in an effort to dampen high oil prices. US President Joe Biden said on Friday.
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Source: BELGIAN
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Referring to an initiative by the International Energy Agency (IEA), Biden said: “This morning more than thirty countries gathered for an extraordinary meeting and decided to bring tens of millions of additional barrels of oil to market.”
The US announced Thursday that it will release roughly 1 million barrels of oil per day from its reserves for six months. The unprecedented measure comes because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused the oil price to skyrocket in recent weeks.
The IEA confirmed Friday evening that during an emergency meeting in Paris, its 31 member states – including Belgium – decided to re-release oil reserves to mitigate the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the markets. The size of this second release of reserves since the outbreak of the war will be announced by the IEA early next week. In a first step, the IEA released 62.7 million barrels of crude oil a month ago. In total, the IEA member states have emergency stocks of about 1.5 billion barrels.
IEA members also stressed on Friday their concerns about the impact of the Russian aggression on energy security. Major disruptions to Russian oil production could ignite a global emergency for oil supplies. Global oil markets remain under severe pressure, leading to major price volatility. The IEA calls on governments and consumers to continue and step up their efforts to save energy.
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