By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The International Energy Agency will hold an informal meeting on Wednesday to discuss a proposed release of oil and diesel stocks, two EU diplomats said, as details regarding the exact volume and composition under the plan remained unclear.
Record-high diesel prices have turned the fuel, which underpins trucking, agriculture and industry, into a global political and economic concern.
The Group of 7 countries agreed last week to the new 100 million barrel release after President Donald Trump warned some European nations that the US would ban diesel exports if they did not put more of the fuel into the market.
The Paris-based IEA’s governing board was due to meet at 1300 local time (1100 GMT), the diplomats said.
The G7 includes the US, UK, Japan and Canada, along with European Union members France, Germany and Italy. The representatives of EU nations had already discussed the proposed release at a meeting on Wednesday morning, the diplomats added.
Polish Energy Minister Milosz Motyka said on Wednesday that Poland was ready to release oil and diesel stocks if a consensus is reached, but he did not expect an IEA decision on this on Wednesday.
The IEA’s board is expected to decide the details of the stocks release at an October 14-15 board meeting, two people close to the matter said on Tuesday.
EXTENT OF NEW VOLUME NOT CLEAR
The IEA advises industrialised countries and coordinates their emergency oil stocks for use during major supply disruptions.
In March, it agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles to combat the spike in crude prices and supply losses that followed the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Of this, about 325 million barrels have so far been released, the IEA said on Friday.
It was not immediately clear on Wednesday if the G7 agreement would simply release the remaining share of the 400 million barrels, or add extra volumes on top of this, and how much would be diesel.
Germany’s economy ministry said it was working on the approval of the release of energy reserves without mentioning any new amount.
“Germany will participate in the further release of the volume already determined by the IEA in March,” the ministry said in a statement.
As well as the war in Iran, the conflict in Ukraine has damaged oil refineries, helping to drive the rise in diesel prices.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett and Holger Hansen; Additional reporting by Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw; Writing by Nina Chestney and Alex Lawler; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Jan Harvey and Joe Bavier)
Comments