World taps emergency oil reserves

Mar 13, 2026 News

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….as Middle East war chokes global supply

…Iran ramps up attacks on ships in Hormuz Strait

(Kaieteur News) – The International Energy Agency has agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of crude oil in response to the disruption caused by the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.

In a statement the 32-Member countries of the IEA on Thursday unanimously agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East. The decision to take emergency collective action was made following an extraordinary meeting of IEA Member governments on Wednesday, convened by the IEA Executive Director to assess market conditions amid the conflict in the Middle East and consider the options to address supply disruptions.  “The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA Members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”

The emergency stocks will be made available to the market over a timeframe that is appropriate to the national circumstances of each Member country and will be supplemented by additional emergency measures by some countries. IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The coordinated stock release is the sixth in the history of the IEA, which was created in 1974. Previous collective actions were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022.

The conflict in the Middle East that began on 28 February 2026 has impeded oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, with export volumes of crude and refined products currently at less than 10% of pre-conflict levels. This is forcing operators across the region to shut in or curtail a substantial amount of production. An average of 20 million barrels per day of crude oil and oil products transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, or around 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade. Options for oil flows to bypass the Strait of Hormuz are limited.

Meanwhile, AL Jazeera has reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says its navy fired on and stopped two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz after they ignored warnings. Meanwhile, explosions rocked Tehran on Thursday as Iran says U.S. and Israeli forces have bombed nearly 10,000 civilian sites in the country. However, Iranian counterattacks continue, while several Gulf states – including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – report missile and drone interceptions in recent hours.

Iran said it will fight on and keep the Strait of Hormuz shut as leverage against the U.S. and Israel, new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said ​in defiant first comments since he succeeded his slain father. “The popular demand is to continue our effective defence and make the enemy regret it,” according to remarks attributed to him by state media. State TV offered no explanation for why the message was ​read out rather than delivered in person.

Hours later, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his first press conference since the start of the war to issue a veiled threat to kill Khamenei and defend the military assault on Iran.

“I wouldn’t issue life insurance policies on any of the leaders of the terrorist organisation,” Netanyahu said. Inside Iran, residents said ​security forces were increasing their presence to demonstrate continued control. The war is creating the biggest oil supply disruption in history, the International Energy Agency said. Oil prices were up about 9% to $100 a barrel.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continues to play down the impact of the war on oil prices. “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump wrote on social media. On another front, Israel intensified its defensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah after it fired its biggest volley of rockets into Israel since the start of the war.

So far, the war has killed more than 2,000 people, including almost 700 in Lebanon. Undermining U.S. and Israeli claims to have knocked out much of Iran’s stock of long-range weapons, more drones were reported flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.

 

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• emergency oil reserves, Hormuz Strait, Iran war, Middle East war, oil reserves

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