22/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - IEA will not release any further strategic oil reserves. The International Energy Agency announced on Thursday 21 July that it had no plans for the moment to release any further strategic oil stocks but said it was ready to act if the market situation required it. According to the Agency, the increased levels of production by OPEC members and June's first release of strategic reserves should be sufficient to meet the needs of markets in the third quarter. On 23 June, the IEA released 60 million barrels from its emergency stocks over a period of 30 days, which saw oil prices fall by around 10%. The Agency's 28 member countries, which include 19 EU member states, hold stocks of over 4 billion barrels of oil, 1.6 million of which constitute strategic reserves. Having failed to convince the other OPEC members of a need to increase production, Saudi Arabia has decided unilaterally to increase it exports. (E.H./transl.rt)