G7 Group Discusses Coordinated Release of Oil Reserves to Maintain Global Supply
Tokyo — Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) discussed the possibility of a coordinated release of oil reserves during an online meeting on Monday, 9 March, which also involved the International Energy Agency (IEA), amid surging oil prices resulting from joint military operations by the United States and Israel against Iran.
“We agreed to take measures to support global energy supplies and other necessary steps,” Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told reporters following the meeting.
She added that the IEA called for a coordinated effort towards the joint release of oil reserves to be undertaken promptly.
She also stated that G7 energy ministers would hold discussions in the near future to discuss the details of a possible oil reserve release.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, who participated in the G7 finance ministers’ meeting, said in a statement that global oil market conditions have “deteriorated in recent days,” citing reduced oil production and challenges in transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
“This creates significant and increasing risks for the market. We are discussing all available options, including providing IEA emergency oil reserves to the market,” he said in the statement.
According to the IEA, member countries currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil reserves, with an additional approximately 600 million barrels of industrial reserves stored pursuant to government obligations.
The US and Japan together hold approximately 700 million barrels of the total public oil reserves.
French Finance Minister Roland Lescure was reported to have said following the meeting that G7 members had not yet made a decision regarding a possible release of emergency oil reserves.
In recent years, a coordinated release of oil reserves coordinated by the IEA was carried out in 2022 to maintain stability in the oil market following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Financial Times, which first reported on the G7 discussions prior to the meeting, noted that the US was among several countries expressing support for a joint release of oil reserves.
The newspaper also reported that some US officials assessed that a joint release in the range of 300 million to 400 million barrels, or approximately 25 to 30 per cent of the total 1.2 billion barrel reserves, could be an appropriate step, with the newspaper citing unnamed sources.
The G7 (Group of Seven) consists of seven countries with major advanced economies in the world, comprising the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada and France.
The group focuses on global economic issues, security and energy, and is supported by the European Union as a non-enumerated member.
As a non-enumerated member, the European Union is an actively supported and supporting partner, though its formal status differs from member countries listed in the main G7 roster.