The International Energy Agency will market 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves

The International Energy Agency (IEA) will release 400 million barrels of its strategic reserves to themarket to compensate for the loss of supply of the Strait of Hormuz due to the interruption of maritime traffic.

These reserves are planned to respond to crisis situations and, since the establishment ofthe organization in 1974, the largest volume ever used is the one that will be brought to market, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol stressed in a statement this Wednesday.

Birol has explained that the decision has been taken unanimously by the 32 member countries that make up the organization and has explained that the aim of this measure is to compensate for the loss of oil supply caused by the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, but has stressed that the most important thing to restore oil flows is that this passage can be reopened.

He recalled that before the war in the Middle East, 15 million barrels of oil and 5 million barrels of petroleum were extracted every day, which is about 25% of the oil flowing throughthe sea.

One of the consequences of the blockade of this route is that some countries have begun to reduce production and, in the context of the war, there have been attacks on energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, some of which have been damaged.

According to the IEA in a statement, with the war, the volume of crude oil and petroleum derivatives exported by the Strait of Hormuz has been reduced to less than 10% .

Birol recalled that "energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA "because when market disruptions occurred in the past," it took collective measures to offer additional supplies, "as it has now decided.

In particular, since its creation following the first oil crisis in 1973, the agency has used its strategic reserves five times, the last two in March and April 2022, because of the strain on the markets caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but never the volume they have accepted today.

The 400 million that will now come onto the market is one thirdof the 1.2 billion barrels that make up those reserves.

IEA members must have at least 90 days of imports in strategic reserves and can be directly controlled by governments or industry to deal with exceptional situations.