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Germany and Austria have said they will release parts of their oil reserves following a request from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for its members to release 400 million barrels to help temper energy price spikes caused by the Iran war.
Japan also said it will release some of its reserves from Monday.
Germany and Japan are members of the Group of Seven or G7, an intergovernmental economic forum that also includes the US, the UK, Italy, Canada and France, which held emergency talks over the past two days on surging oil prices.
The G7 did not immediately agree to release reserves itself.
Instead, it asked the IEA to assess the situation and draw up options for a coordinated release of strategic stocks.
The IEA subsequently convened an extraordinary meeting of its 32 member governments to decide whether to act.
It is that meeting, expected to conclude on Wednesday, that has produced the proposed 400 million barrel release.
The G7’s role was political in setting the direction and asking for a plan. The IEA’s role is technical, in terms of formally approving and coordinating a release that actually results in oil flowing into the market.
The announcement came as Brent crude, the international benchmark, remained around 20% higher than when the war began, despite falling well below Monday’s peaks.
Consumers around the world are already feeling the impact at the pump.
The largest previous collective release of emergency stocks by IEA member countries was 182.7 million barrels, following the energy shock triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
IEA members currently hold over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.
G7 energy ministers on Tuesday announced they supported in principle “the implementation of proactive measures to address the situation, including the use of strategic reserves,” setting the stage for Wednesday’s coordinated response from Berlin and Vienna.
In response to US and Israeli strikes, Iran has attacked commercial ships across the Persian Gulf, escalating a campaign to squeeze the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mount.
Iran has effectively halted cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of all oil is shipped from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean.
The US military said on Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the strait, though President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no confirmed reports of Iran mining the passage.
If the strait were to be mined, experts say it could take at least several weeks to clear once the conflict ends.
Dark fleets?
Despite the disruption, some traffic is continuing.
Security firm Neptune P2P Group said on Wednesday that seven ships had passed through the strait since 8 March, five of them linked to Iranian-associated shipping.
In ordinary times the strait typically sees more than 100 ships transit daily.
Some tankers are making so-called “dark” transits — turning off their Automatic Identification System trackers, a practice commonly associated with vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude.
Commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran had meanwhile restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman, with a tanker loading roughly 2 million barrels at the terminal on 7 March — suggesting Tehran retains some capacity to route oil around the strait.
Tehran has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming to generate enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.
According to the IEA, export volumes of crude and refined products are currently at less than 10% of pre-war levels.