By Susan Heavey and Alex Lawler
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The United States and its allies are weighing an oil reserve release amid soaring prices and concern about supplies after Russia invaded Ukraine, an OPEC+ source and a senior industry source told Reuters.
Oil prices have hit the highest since 2014 following the invasion, as a result of which Western allies have imposed sanctions on Russia and blocked some Russian banks from a global payments system, which could cause disruption to its oil exports.
The International Energy Agency, the Paris-based body which represents mostly industrialised nations, will hold an extraordinary ministerial meeting on Tuesday, the agency’s head Fatih Birol said.
The meeting, to be chaired by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, will concern “the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on oil supply and how IEA members can play a role in stabilising energy markets,” Birol said in a Twitter post.
The senior industry source said the amounts of any stocks release were not yet decided.
“The U.S. crude will be sweet and the volume is still under discussion,” the source said. “Europe will mainly release products.”
Earlier the Wall Street Journal said the nations were considering a release of 70 million barrels, while Bloomberg reported they were weighing a release of about 60 million barrels.
According to officials cited by the WSJ, members of the IEA could agree as early as Monday or Tuesday to tap their national strategic oil reserves. The IEA declined to comment aside from Birol’s comment on Twitter.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Alex Lawler and Noah Browning; Editing by Jan Harvey, Kirsten Donovan)
