In a March 11 press release, Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) announced that the International Energy Agency (IEA) had decided at an emergency Governing Board meeting the same day to implement the Collective Action proposed on March 10 to release 400 million barrels of emergency oil stocks. Korea has been allocated 22.46 million barrels, or 5.6% of the total, for release.

The IEA approved the largest coordinated stock release in its history to help ease the global energy supply crisis, which has been intensifying amid recent developments in the Middle East. National release volumes were calculated in proportion to each member country’s share of total oil consumption across all IEA members. Korea’s 22.46 million-barrel allocation is the largest volume ever allocated to Korea, surpassing the 4.94 million barrels released during the 1990 Gulf War.

This latest IEA Collective Action will mark the first coordinated stock release in about four years, following the joint release carried out during the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war. It also exceeds the combined 11.65 million barrels released in the two IEA-led stock releases at that time.

The government will consult with the IEA Secretariat on specific details, including the timing and volume of the release, in line with Korea’s national interest and domestic circumstances. It will also work closely with the IEA and other major countries to help stabilize the international oil market and respond to high oil prices stemming from the situation in the Middle East, with the aim of minimizing the impact on the broader economy and consumer prices.

In a separate statement released March 11 by the IEA, its Executive Director Fatih Birol said, “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. … 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.”

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Sources: MOTIR and IEA, edited by David Kendall