Tipsheet

400 Million Barrels of Emergency Reserve Oil to Be Released by the International Energy Agency

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  March 11, 2026 3:00 PM

The International Energy Agency announced Wednesday that its 32 member countries, which include the United States, will be releasing 400 barrels of emergency reserve oil to mitigate disruptions in the oil market originating from Operation Epic Fury.

This release will mark the largest in the history of the IEA, as oil prices briefly spiked on Monday before dropping to below $90 a barrel by the end of the day. However, Iran is now threatening to push oil prices above $200 a barrel as it has sought to target tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.

From the IEA:

IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The coordinated stock release is the sixth in the history of the IEA, which was created in 1974. Previous collective actions were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022.

“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA Members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”

However, the release of 400 million barrels of oil will only partially ease rising prices. Roughly twenty million barrels of crude and petroleum products pass through the Strait of Hormuz each day, meaning the IEA’s strategic release would replace only a fraction of any sustained disruption to shipping, depending on the length of Operation Epic Fury.