The International Energy Agency agreed to discharge 400 million barrels from emergency oil reserves, its largest-ever release, as governments seek to contain a price spike driven by the Middle East war.
The volume far exceeds the 183 million barrels that member states released in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. But potential supply losses from the current crisis may also be much larger, with the near-halt of flows through the critical Strait of Hormuz keeping vast amounts of crude and fuels off the global market.
“The oil-market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale,” IEA Executive Director