The IEA is "ready to act" on coordinating another potential release of oil from strategic reserves but hopes doing so will not be necessary, IEA executive director Fatih Birol said on Monday.
"I hope, I very much hope, we don't need to do it," Birol said at an event in Washington, DC, hosted by the think tank the Atlantic Council. "But if it is needed, we are ready to act immediately."
The Paris-based IEA on 11 March, less than two weeks into the US-Israel war on Iran, announced a record 400mn bl emergency oil release by its members, which subsequently increased to 426mn bl. Four weeks later, oil flows remain heavily restricted through the strait of Hormuz, and attacks have continued on critical oil and gas infrastructure across the Mideast Gulf. The US on Monday started what it said was a blockade against Iranian oil exports.
Any additional IEA release would be an "important decision" that would require time for consultation among the IEA's 32 member countries, Birol said. IEA members had 1.25bn bl of oil in public stocks as of the end of last year, accounting for around 30pc of total OECD oil inventories. Releasing strategic oil reserves is not a solution to the shortages caused by the war in Iran, Birol said, and is just "reducing the pain."
More than 80 facilities have already been damaged during the war, including refineries, terminals, upstream production and pipelines, Birol said. More than a third of those facilities have been severely damaged, and IEA analysts expect it could take up to two years to restore output from the Middle East to where it was before the war began on 28 February, Birol said.
