IEA agrees to release 60m barrels of oil amid war – CARICOM Business

All 31 member countries of the International Energy Agency, IEA, have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves “to send a strong message to oil markets” that there will be “no shortfall in supplies” as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of 1.5 billion barrels of oil. The release amounts to 4.0% of stockpiles, or roughly 2 million bpd for 30 days. Russia plays an outsized role in global energy markets as the third largest oil producer.

Its exports of 5 million barrels of crude per day amount to about 12% of the global oil trade. Some 60% goes to Europe and another 20% to China. Adding to supply constraints, some oil buyers in recent days have shunned Russian crude, fearing that if sanctions were applied to Russian oil or gas, their purchased oil could be rendered unusable. This helped pushed WTI prices to US$115.70 and Brent Crude to US$118.10 per barrel at the weekend.

In the meantime, the OPEC+ coalition of oil producers chose to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day for the month of April 2022.

Source: CARICOM TODAY