The 31 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) have agreed to release around 60 mbl of oil from their emergency reserves, adding to 60 mbl that will be released by the United States from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), in an attempt to reduce prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Japan will take part to this coordinate release with 15 mbl of oil from state and private reserves. Details on the new emergency stock release will be made public soon.
IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of 1.5 Gbl. So far, they have led oil releases four times, in 1991, 2005, 2011 and in early March 2022, when they agreed to release 62.7 mbl of oil, including 30 mbl of oil from the US SPR. In late March 2022, the United States announced a release of an additional 1 mb/d of oil reserve every day for the next six months; the 180 mbl release is equivalent to around 2 days of global demand. Revenues from the release will be used to restock the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in future years.