Seoul: South Korea plans to release 22.46 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves in line with an agreement among International Energy Agency (IEA) members to make 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves available to the market, Seoul's industry ministry has said.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the ministry announced the plan for the release shortly after the 32-member IEA unanimously agreed to carry out the agency's largest-ever oil stock release in a collective action to help address disruptions in oil markets that stem from the ongoing war between the United States, Israel, and Iran.
The contribution of each country in the collective endeavor was calculated in proportion to its share of the member countries' total oil consumption. South Korea's planned release accounts for 5.6 percent of the total 400 million barrels to be released.
An industry ministry official stated that close cooperation with the IEA is expected to contribute significantly to stabilizing the international oil market. The official emphasized plans to minimize the impact on the people's economy and prices by working closely with major countries to respond to high oil prices resulting from the Middle East situation. The IEA mentioned in a press release that the emergency stocks will be made available over a timeframe suitable to the national circumstances of each member country, and will be supplemented by additional emergency measures by some countries.
The joint campaign of military strikes by the U.S. and Israel on Iran, which began on February 28, led to a surge in oil prices. Disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, responsible for about one-fifth of the world's oil supplies, further drove up prices.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol expressed satisfaction that IEA member countries have responded with a large-scale emergency collective action, noting that global oil market challenges require a global response. He affirmed that energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA and acknowledged the strong solidarity shown by IEA members in taking decisive action together.
This coordinated IEA stock release is the sixth in the agency's history, which was founded in 1974 for a collective response to disruptions in global oil supplies. Previous collective actions were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022, according to the agency.