A push to lower the price at the pumps<\/h2>\n
The IEA’s announcement came a day after energy ministers from the Group of Seven \u2014 the leading industrialized nations of Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Britain \u2014 met in Paris to look at ways to bring down prices. It also came just before G7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, met Wednesday via videoconference.<\/p>\n
During his introductory remarks during Wednesday’s video call, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the IEA decision to release emergency oil stocks, saying it is \u201cvery important\u201d to do everything possible to increase global production and that the 400 million barrels amounted to the equivalent of \u201c20 days of the volume being exported through the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n
The amount pledged by the G7 nations alone comprises 70% of the total, including 14.5 million barrels France will contribute, Macron said, noting that the IEA decision was prepared at the G7 level.<\/p>\n
Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University\u2019s Hydrogen Initiative, said the release would have \u201ca short-term stabilizing effect\u201d but that it would diminish if the war persists and the Strait of Hormuz remains essentially at a standstill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a silver bullet to solve everything,\u201d Sonin said. \u201cYou have to solve the underlying problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oil follows snaking journeys that can take weeks to go from drill sites to gas pumps. It must pass through refineries, where it is turned to fuel, before it is shipped off via pipelines and tankers to terminals, and then on to gas stations.<\/p>\n
Because of this, no single decision has an immediate impact.<\/p>\n
But Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said the release of reserves will calm markets and prevent wild price swings and could lead to lower prices at the pump in the next week or so. Still, a trade-off is involved by tapping reserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re depleting stocks now. That\u2019s always the catch-22,\u201d Medlock said. \u201cYou\u2019re selling them today but that means you can\u2019t sell them tomorrow because they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Member countries pledge help<\/h2>\n
Germany, Austria and Japan said earlier Wednesday that they would release parts of their oil reserves in response to the IEA’s request for members to release 400 million barrels.<\/p>\n
The IEA reserves were established in 1974 following the Arab oil embargo, and IEA member countries currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s economy ministry, Katherina Reiche, said the IEA asked Germany to release 2.64 million tons \u2014 roughly 19.7 million barrels \u2014 of its oil reserves.<\/p>\n
She said it would take a couple of days before the delivery of the first quantities.<\/p>\n
\u201cGermany stands behind the IEA\u2019s most important principle of mutual solidarity,\u201d Reiche said.<\/p>\n
The German government also said it will introduce a measure to allow gas stations in Germany to raise fuel prices no more than once a day. The federal government wants to introduce this as quickly as possible, Reiche said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t immediately clear how much oil Austria was releasing.<\/p>\n
Starting Monday in Austria, price increases at gas stations will be allowed only three times a week, said the country\u2019s economy minister, Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer. He said Austria was releasing part of its emergency oil reserve and extending the national strategic gas reserve, adding: \u201cOne thing is clear: in a crisis, there must be no crisis winners at the expense of commuters and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
IEA nations have released emergency stocks on five previous occasions: During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, during the Libyan civil war in 2011, and twice after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
By SAMUEL PETREQUIN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER<\/em><\/p>\n Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press reporters Matt Sedensky in New York, and John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" … energy markets and the halt of cargo shipping<\/span> through the Strait of Hormuz. The Paris … concerns mount and effectively stopping cargo<\/span> traffic in the narrow Strait of … options to replace the missing LNG cargoes<\/span> from Qatar and the Emirates,\u00e2\u0080\u009d he …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}