The International Energy Agency said Tuesday that its member countries, including the United States and Japan, have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves to ensure the stability of oil markets following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The coordinated release of petroleum stocks, the first of its kind since 2011, is intended to "send a unified and strong message" to global markets that there will be no supply shortfalls as a result of the attack by Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer and largest exporter, the IEA said in a news release.
The agreement was reached during a ministerial-level meeting, which was held against a backdrop of already tight global oil markets, heightened price volatility and commercial inventories that are at their lowest levels since 2014, the Paris-based agency said.