Head of world’s energy watchdog says it will take time for markets to recover from ongoing crisis in strait of Hormuz
The world’s energy watchdog will consider releasing further emergency crude stocks into the global market to cool rising oil prices after warning that it will take time for markets to recover from the ongoing crisis in the strait of Hormuz.
Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said its members continued to hold large reserves of emergency oil stocks even after agreeing to the biggest release of government crude in the history of the market, meaning more emergency oil reserves could still be released “as and if needed”.
It came as the price of Brent crude rose almost 3% within minutes of the market opening on Monday, to about $106.50 a barrel. It later dipped by about 2%, but was still trading at just above $100 a barrel.
About 100m barrels of emergency oil stockpiles will be made available to buyers in Asia this week in the first release from a planned 400m barrel deluge of crude into the global market to make up for the lost exports from Gulf nations, which has caused global oil prices to surge by 40% this month.
