Top oil consuming nations may find that one of their main tools to fight high global oil prices — the release of strategic stockpiles — will prove inadequate to soothe markets starved of Russian supply since its invasion of Ukraine.
The 31-member International Energy Agency (IEA), representing industrialized nations but not Russia, presided over the fourth coordinated oil release in its history on March 1 of over 60 million barrels of crude — its largest yet.
The United States is considering yet another massive release — of up to 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over months — to stave off consumer energy inflation, according to sources.