The International Energy Agency is proposing a massive release from it members’ strategic crude reserves to cool off the rally in oil prices after the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The release would exceed the 182 million barrels that the IEA’s 32 member states put into the market when oil prices surged in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper said, citing officials familiar with the plan. The release was floated during a Tuesday meeting and is likely to be decided Wednesday by its membership, which is made up of the world’s largest economies.
The crude oil release would be adopted if it is unopposed, but the objections of even one country could delay it, officials told the newspaper.
Neither the IEA nor the U.S. Energy Department immediately responded to requests for comment.
