G-7 Eyes Joint Oil Reserve Release

London/Washington/Tokyo, March 9 (Jiji Press)–Finance ministers from the Group of Seven major democracies Monday issued a statement vowing to address surging crude oil prices amid the continued U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran. “We stand ready to take necessary measures, including to support global supply of energy such as stockpile release,” the G-7 finance ministers said in the statement after discussing the tense situation in the Middle East at an emergency online meeting. A joint release of oil reserves, if carried out, would be the first in about four years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. “It is a great achievement that we agreed to take necessary measures,” Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told reporters in Tokyo after the meeting. According to the Financial Times, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said that no agreement has been reached yet on the coordinated oil release. Joining the G-7 meeting, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, called for urgent efforts to release oil reserves. In 2022, IEA member countries agreed to jointly release over 180 million barrels of oil. Japan decided to release a total of 22.5 million barrels from its private and public oil reserves. Prior to Monday’s G-7 meeting, the Financial Times reported a U.S. official’s remark that it would be appropriate to jointly release 300 million to 400 million barrels, or about 30 pct of the IEA members’ oil reserves. Japan’s oil reserves total 254 days’ worth of supply. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]