Oil up in Asian trade despite reserves release

Oil up in Asian trade despite reserves release

Brent Crude was up 7.2 per cent at US$98.60 per barrel.

TOKYO: Oil rose in Asia on Thursday (Mar 12) even after announcements of huge releases of crude from strategic reserves in an attempt to bring down prices in the wake of the Iran war.

At around 1am GMT, Brent Crude was up 7.2 per cent at US$98.60 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate was 6.5 per cent higher at US$92.96.

On stock markets, Japan’s Nikkei was off just over 1 per cent, and the Kospi in South Korea was down more than 0.3 per cent.

The Straits Times Index was down 0.08 per cent while Bursa Malaysia was down 0.44 per cent.

The United States Department of Energy said Wednesday it will release 172 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve “beginning next week”.

The release would “take approximately 120 days to deliver based on planned discharge rates”, the agency said in a post to X.

On Wednesday, the International Energy Agency announced that its members had agreed to unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves - their largest release ever.

Japan said it would release oil reserves as early as Monday, while Germany said it planned to do the same, without specifying a date.

Iran has retaliated against US and Israeli attacks that began on Feb 28 by attacking targets across the oil-rich Gulf.

The conflict has effectively shut down the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20 per cent of the world’s oil usually transits to world markets.

Iran conducted attacks on merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz, telling the world to get ready for oil at US$200 a barrel.