The 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) decided this Wednesday, March 11, “unanimously”, to release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves onto the markets.
“The AIE countries will make 400 million barrels of oil available (…) to the market to compensate for the loss of supply due to the effective closure of the Strait” of Hormuz, announced the agency’s executive director, Fatih Birol, in a video statement.
This is the sixth time that the IEA has coordinated the release of strategic oil reserves.
With the release of 400 million barrels of oil, more than double the agency’s previous record intervention at the start of the war in Ukraine, when it released 182 million barrels of crude oil, it aims to compensate for the supply lost due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States and Israel launched a military attack against Iran on Saturday, February 28, to “eliminate imminent threats from the Iranian regime”, and Tehran responded with missiles and drones against US bases in the region and Israeli targets.
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and launched retaliatory attacks against Israel, US bases and other infrastructure in countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Iraq, Cyprus and Turkey.
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