Biden says 30 countries to join US in stock draw

Over 30 countries are joining the US in a fresh release of oil from strategic stocks, according to US president Joe Biden.

"This morning, over 30 countries from across the world convened an extraordinary meeting and agreed to the release of tens of millions of additional barrels of oil onto the market," Biden said today, without revealing any of the participants, or disclosing the exact volumes and timeframe involved. "I co-ordinated this release with partners and allies around the world," Biden said. "Hundreds of hours of meeting with key allies keeping them together is paying off."

Yesterday Biden ordered the drawdown of 1mn b/d of crude from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) over six months, in what will be Washington's third stock draw in recent months. Biden said at the time that the US is seeking to co-ordinate its SPR release with allies and that he expected other countries to release "somewhere between 30mn-50mn bl".

IEA member countries assembled today for an extraordinary meeting to discuss a potential response to oil market volatility sparked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The IEA already announced a co-ordinated release of over 60mn bl of oil from strategic stocks at the start of March, half of which was from the US. The agency has yet to respond to a request for comment on a new release.

The Ice Brent futures contract with June delivery was trading at $105.31/bl at 15:23 GMT, up by 60¢/bl from yesterday's settlement price.

By Ruxandra Iordache and Haik Gugarats