IEA members move to speed up release of pledged oil stockpiles
The push follows IEA chief Fatih Birol's Oct 2 update that 325 million barrels, over 80% of March's pledge, have already reached the market.
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The March 11 action saw IEA members unanimously agree to make 400 million barrels available to offset disruptions from the Middle East conflict, a release the IEA itself called the largest in its history, the sixth such collective action since 1991. On Oct 2, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said about 325 million barrels, more than 80 per cent of that pledge, had already been released, according to Oilprice.com.
The same day, G7 countries agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and oil-derivative products over the next four months, with a substantial diesel release frontloaded into the first 20 days, according to an IEA statement cited by RTE.
The move marks an acceleration of what Birol described on Oct 2, when distribution was still being finalized, into an active effort to get all pledged barrels out quickly. The roughly 100 million barrel figure matches France's original proposal for a 50/50 split between diesel and crude, suggesting the full amount is now being acted on rather than merely discussed. A faster completion would compress the timeline for the additional supply to reach the market well ahead of the October 15 coordination meeting, pulling forward bearish pressure on crude that had previously been described only as a possibility. Whether diesel tightness in Europe eases as much as crude availability remains open, since the IEA has treated diesel as the more acute shortage.