US pushes IEA members for extra 100 million barrel oil release
Washington tells International Energy Agency members the diesel-focused release now under discussion is not enough and wants 100 million more barrels added
Published
Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
The United States has told International Energy Agency member nations it is unhappy with the emergency oil release now under discussion at the group's October 14-15 board meeting and wants them to add 100 million barrels of crude on top of it.
The release under discussion has focused on diesel. The IEA has said the market faces a supply deficit of 1.73 million barrels a day tied to disruption linked to Iran, a gap a diesel-only release would not close.
The disruption behind that gap has been building all week. A third supertanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz in two days, according to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Separately, Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said a deal with the United States would not prevent another attack on Iran, and CNN has reported that Washington is weighing use of the GBU-57 bunker-buster bomb against Iran.
Washington's push for a far larger release than the diesel-specific plan already under discussion signals it sees that plan as insufficient against the risk of further disruption through the Strait of Hormuz. Whether other IEA members are willing to commit barrels at that scale, beyond the diesel consensus already reached, is not yet settled, and the outcome will shape how much spare capacity markets can count on if disruption in the Strait continues.