IEA says 325 million barrels released from reserves

International Energy Agency member countries have released around 325 million barrels of oil and oil-derived products from strategic reserves, the agency said Saturday.

The amount represents more than 80 percent of the 400 million barrels pledged in an IEA collective action announced on March 11, the agency said.

The update came a day after G7 countries, in coordination with the IEA, agreed to immediately release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil over the next four months to ease global energy supply concerns.

The G7 said the release would include a substantial diesel release within the first 20 days. It also said G7 countries would not impose diesel export bans between themselves.

The G7 did not say whether the 100 million barrels included the outstanding 75 million barrels from the March IEA commitment or came on top of that.

The United States has pressed allies to release diesel reserves to ease a rise in diesel prices. Restricted diesel supplies have been linked in the supplied information to the fallout from the US-Iran war, including disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.