Japan will hold an auction on May 10 to sell 760,000 kiloliters, or 4.8 million barrels, of national reserve oil, the industry ministry said on Friday, as part of a release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cool rising prices.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had said earlier this month that Japan would release a record 15 million barrels of oil from its national reserves as part of a second round of the IEA-led coordinated release.
Six million barrels of the total will come from privately held reserves and 9 million barrels from state reserves, the industry ministry had said last week.