The International Energy Agency's governing board will meet October 14-15 to decide how the G7's pledged release of 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil will be divided among countries and products. The G7 agreed to the release on Friday but gave no breakdown of volumes or participants, leaving traders and officials still working out the details days later.
The IEA's governing board is set to decide the details of a diesel stock release at its October 14-15 board meeting, two people close to the matter said Tuesday. Market confusion has grown over how many barrels Europe and the United States plan to make available to address shortages and record-high diesel prices.
G7 pledge lacks a breakdown
Under pressure from President Donald Trump, the G7 agreed Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves and pledged to refrain from energy export restrictions. The group did not say how the volumes would split between crude oil, diesel and other products, or which countries would take part.
G7 members include the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Canada, along with EU nations France, Germany and Italy. Italy would be part of the release, one of the sources said. Separately, the EU's oil coordination group was due to meet Wednesday, a European Commission spokesperson said. The Paris-based IEA and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Wars curtailed exports
Wars in Iran and Ukraine have curtailed exports and damaged refineries, helping drive the rise in prices. Diesel underpins trucking, agriculture and industry, and the surge has turned it into a global political and economic concern.
Already, the Iran war sparked the biggest emergency stock release ever of 400 million barrels in March, coordinated by the IEA. G7 leaders said they would take into account commitments already fulfilled under that earlier release.
Traders still guessing at details
Oil market participants and some EU officials spent Tuesday trying to work out the finer points of Friday's announcement. Russell Hardy, chief executive of commodities trading house Vitol, said at a London conference that the firm was still trying to understand what was being released: "It wasn't a fully transparent announcement about exactly what was being released where."
Hardy added that tenders from different bodies over the next two weeks would clarify how much oil would come out, and from where.
Source: Commodities & Futures News
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