In face of the global energy shortage that the world is experiencing due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced that its member countries will be releasing a whopping 120 million barrels of crude oil reserves over a period of six months.
As per IEA the “unanimous” agreement to release the stock was reached by the organisation’s 31 members on April 1. As per a Reuters report, about half of the 120 million barrels will be contributed by the United States.
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This is the largest stock release in the history of organisation and was confirmed by the Governing Board of the IEA as reported by Xinhua news agency.
Earlier IEA had released 62.7 million barrels of crude oil on March 1st and this recently announced release is the second release of reserves since the conflict in Ukraine started on February 24th.
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The release of crude reserves aims to drive down the rising fuel prices around the globe.
However, experts and analysts have warned that even with the emergency reserve releases oil supply remains tight.
India, which is one of the largest importers of oil has announced that it is evaluating ways to support IEA’s move.
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“In the interest of collaborating with like minded countries on these positive initiatives, Government of India is examining what it can do to support these actions.”
Before the Russian attack on Ukraine, IEA members held a collective emergency stockpile of 1.5 billion barrels of crude.
(With inputs from agencies)
