NEW YORK, March 11. /TASS/. The International Energy Agency has proposed the largest release of oil reserves in its history to bring down the crude prices that soared triggered by the US-Israel war with Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported citing officials familiar with the matter.
The release would exceed the 182 million barrels of oil that the IEA ·member countries put onto the market in two releases in 2022, WSJ said.
A decision on this issue is to be made on Wednesday.
The proposal would be adopted if no nation objects.
On Wednesday, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said that the IEA member states have more than 1.2 billion barrels of state emergency oil reserves and 600 million barrels of industrial reserves.
Earlier CNBC citing data from the Rapidan Energy Group consulting company said that the cessation of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz caused the largest disruption of global oil supplies in history, covering about 20% of the supplies. Before that the largest disruption was during the 1956 Suez crisis, when about 10% of global oil exports were affected. The Gulf War of 1990-1991 affected 9% of supplies.
On March 2, Major General of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (elite army units) Ebrahim Jabari warned that the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil exports pass, will be closed by the military operation of Israel and the United States against the republic. On March 5, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the strait was not closed, but ships, including tankers, did not cross it fearing attacks from both sides.