On Wednesday 11 March, the 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which include a majority of EU Member States, agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves (1.2 billion barrels in total) to offset the disruption to oil markets caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
As explained by the IEA’s Executive Director, Fatih Birol, this is the largest coordinated release in the Agency’s history, following six previous actions, the two...