WASHINGTON
\nThe Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four U.S. sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices.
\nThe International Energy Agency (IEA) member countries are set to meet on Friday at 1200 GMT to decide on a collective oil release, a spokesperson for New Zealand energy minister said in an email on Thursday.
\n\u201cThe amount of the potential collective release has not been decided,\u201d the spokesperson for minister Megan Woods added. \u201cThat meeting will set a total volume, and per country allocations will follow,\u201d she said.
\nIt is unclear if the U.S. SPR draw would be part of a wider global coordinated release.
\nThe IEA did not respond to a request for comment outside office hours. President Joe Biden will deliver remarks on Thursday on his administration\u2019s actions, the White House said.
\nThe latest amount of U.S. oil release being considered, which is equivalent to about two days of global demand, would mark the third time the United States has tapped its strategic reserves in the past six months, and would be the largest release in the near 50-year history of the SPR.
\nGlobal oil prices plunged more than $5 a barrel on the news.
\nOil prices have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and the United States and allies responded with hefty sanctions on Russia, the second-largest exporter of crude.
\nBrent crude, the world benchmark, soared to about $139 earlier this month, highest since 2008, but slipped under $108 a barrel in Asian trading on Thursday.
\nRussia is one of the top producers of oil, contributing about 10% to the global market. But sanctions and buyer reluctance to purchase Russian oil could remove about 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil from the market starting in April, the IEA has said.
\nRussia exports 4 to 5 million bpd.
\nThe news comes just before the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, an oil producer group known as OPEC+ that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, meets to discuss reducing supply curbs. The United States, Britain and others have previously urged OPEC+ to quickly boost output.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four U.S. sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices. The International Energy Agency (IEA) member countries are set to meet on Friday at 1200 GMT to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-252389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n