Emergency oil reserves tapped to stabilize market amid Iran war

The International Energy Agency announced a rare coordinated oil release to stabilize global markets.

By World Israel News Staff

Dozens of countries have agreed to tap into their strategic oil reserves in an effort to stabilize global energy markets, where prices have surged since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels from emergency reserves, citing the conflict in the Middle East and the resulting disruptions to global oil supplies.

“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale. Therefore, I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press statement.

“Oil markets are global, so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too.”

During its 50-year existence, the IEA has tapped into emergency oil reserves only a handful of times. Most recently, it coordinated a large release in 2022 following the outbreak of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Iran has targeted oil infrastructure in Gulf states and closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime corridor through which roughly 25 percent of the world’s oil supply travels each day.

Before Israel’s Operation Epic Fury and the U.S. military’s Operation Roaring Lion, oil prices typically traded below $70 per barrel, sometimes dipping as low as $60.

However, uncertainty and supply disruptions caused by the conflict have pushed prices sharply higher, with crude climbing to around $115 per barrel.

American consumers have already begun feeling the impact at the gas pump, as fuel prices rise in response to the global spike in oil costs.

Speaking in Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump praised the IEA’s decision to release oil from strategic reserves, saying the move would help stabilize the market.

Trump said the action would “substantially reduce oil prices.”