EXCLUSIVE: IEA to announce release of 120m barrels of crude

Quantum Commodity Intelligence - The International Energy Agency is planning to announce as early as Monday that member states have agreed to release 120 million barrels of crude oil, Quantum understands from multiple sources.

The announcement was originally scheduled be made public at 1830 Paris time on Monday, a source with knowledge of the matter said, although it has since been delayed.

IEA members had already agreed last Friday to go ahead with another stock release, but details on volumes and timing were yet to be agreed upon until this morning.

The market is expecting 30-60 million barrels will come from IEA members, excluding the US.

A previous release of 62.7 million barrels was announced at the start of March following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, equivalent to 4% of its total volume in storage.

The IEA expects Russian oil production shut-in to reach 3 million bpd this month, amid the US embargo and as western energy majors have shunned Russian barrels in fears of reprisals, it said in its monthly report published two weeks ago.

Last Thursday, US President Biden announced a 1 million bpd stock release over the next six months, worth 180 million barrels, to ease gasoline and energy prices.

The IEA was unavailable for comment.