IEA Countries to Tap 60Mn Barrels of Oil On Top of U.S. Release

• International Energy Agency (IEA) states agreed to tap 60.0Mn barrels of oil from storage, the director of the group said on Wednesday, on top of a 180.0Mn-barrel release announced by Washington last week aimed at cooling prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 
• The move by the U.S.-allied IEA countries, which represent the 31 most industrialised countries excluding Russia, would be their second coordinated release in a month and would be the fifth in the agency's history to confront oil market outages. 
• It was the largest release from non-U.S. IEA countries on top of the largest draw from the United States. 
• Sanctions and buyer aversion have disrupted Russian oil supplies, pushing oil near $140 a barrel on March 7 despite the previous IEA release of 60.0Mn barrels, with half of that coming from the United States, about a week earlier. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.” 
• Markets appeared to be cheered by the latest IEA move, with Brent oil falling about 5% to about $101.50 a barrel on Wednesday. 
• The United States will match the 60.0Mn-barrel draw tapped by the other IEA countries in its 180.0Mn-barrel draw from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve announced in March. The timing of when the additional 60.0Mn barrels from non-U.S. IEA countries would come to market was not immediately clear.

(Source: Reuters)