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U.S. to release 172 million barrels from strategic oil reserve: Energy secretary

Published: 12 Mar. 2026, 10:25

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks during a panel at the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit in Washington on March 11. [AFP/YONHAP]

The United States plans to release 172 million barrels from its strategic petroleum reserve, beginning next week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday, as International Energy Agency (IEA) members agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves available to the market.

The announcement came after the 32-member IEA unanimously agreed to carry out the agency's largest-ever oil stock release in a collective action to help address disruptions in oil markets that stem from the ongoing war among the United States, Israel and Iran.

The secretary said that the release will take about 120 days to deliver based on planned discharge rates.

After the United States and Israel kicked off a joint campaign of military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, oil prices surged. Disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — responsible for about one-fifth of the world's oil supplies — pushed up prices.

The coordinated IEA stock release is the sixth in the history of the agency, which was founded in 1974 for a collective response to disruptions in global oil supplies. Previous collective actions were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011 and twice in 2022, according to the agency.

Yonhap