Oil | AIE members will return to draw on their reserves

(Paris) The member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) have decided to draw again on their strategic oil reserves, but for an unknown volume, in an attempt to lower prices, announced Friday the ‘OUCH.

“This morning, more than 30 countries met for an extraordinary meeting and decided to put tens of millions of additional barrels of oil on the market,” US President Joe Biden previously said, referring to the IEA.

The latter confirmed in a press release that its 31 members had decided to draw on their reserves again, but that the details would be made public “at the beginning of next week”.

This decision “underlines their solid and united commitment to stabilize the world energy markets”, very volatile since the Russian invasion in Ukraine, indicates the agency based in Paris, which brings together developed countries.

The American president had announced Thursday that he would withdraw for six months 1 million barrels per day in the immense strategic oil reserves of the United States, unheard of. This represents 180 million barrels in total.

Joe Biden is struggling to try to stem the surge in prices at the pump, which is exasperating American households and from which the Republican opposition is making its honey in the campaign for the November legislative elections.

The American president, who is trying to blame the phenomenon on the invasion of Ukraine and therefore on Vladimir Putin, also does not spare his criticism of the American oil industry, which he accuses of accumulating profits gargantuan without investing in production.

The IEA countries had already promised last month to draw some 62.7 million barrels from their reserves, stressing that they had the possibility of going further. They have a total of 1.5 billion barrels of reserves.

The IEA, based in Paris, was founded in 1974 to ensure the security of supply of developed countries following the oil crisis.

It has 31 members, including the United States, Japan and many European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, etc.)

Each country is required to hold emergency oil reserves equivalent to 90 days of imports. In the event of a supply problem, they can decide to release these stocks on the market within the framework of a coordinated action.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has boosted oil prices sharply, while producing countries also continue to restrict their supply.

The producing countries of OPEC + (an alliance that includes Russia) agreed on Thursday to a new modest opening of their black gold valves, ignoring calls to ease pressure on prices.

On March 7, oil had reached its historic highs of the 2008 financial crisis. Brent from the North Sea, the benchmark for black gold in Europe, peaked at 139.13 dollars a barrel and the American WTI reached 130 .50 dollars.

Prices have since slipped from their peaks, with a barrel around 100 dollars on Friday.