Overview
- All 32 IEA members approved making 400 million barrels available, the largest coordinated stock release to date and far exceeding the 2022 drawdown of about 183 million barrels.
- National pledges include the US at 172 million barrels over 120 days, Japan about 80 million, the UK 13.5 million, Germany 19.5 million, France up to 14.5 million, and South Korea 22.5 million.
- Brent crude briefly approached $120 earlier this week before easing to around $90 after the announcement, though trading remains volatile.
- The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed to most tanker traffic, with two fuel tankers struck near Iraq’s Umm Qasr on Thursday and typical daily flows of roughly 200 tankers largely halted.
- The IEA warns the conflict has triggered the biggest supply disruption on record, with Hormuz flows collapsing, Gulf producers cutting output by at least 10 million barrels per day, global supply set to drop by 8 million barrels per day in March, and diesel and jet markets especially exposed if outages persist.