G7 considers another oil stocks release – Emmanuel Macron

The Group of Seven (G7) countries are planning to convene in the coming weeks to discuss another round of release from their emergency oil stocks amid supply concerns due to dispute in Saudi oil deliveries.

IMAGE: Flags of the G7 countries. Getty Images

The G7 leaders will meet to discuss emergency stock levels, production capacity and assess unlocking their Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs) once again, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a recent press conference.

Macron’s statement comes days after Europe’s top oil supplier Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco cancelled its late-September crude cargoes to several European refiners, following attacks on its 1,200 km East-West Pipeline.

“In the coming weeks, we ​will hold a G7 meeting dedicated ​to these energy issues… ​to consider options for potential releases from strategic ‌reserves,” Macron said at the news conference.

Separately, it is a “very real possibility” that the US Department of Energy (DOE) will offer more crude oil from its ongoing 172 million bbls drawdown from the US SPR, Argus Media reported, citing US energy secretary Chris Wright.

“The market right now is saying, ‘Hey, maybe we need that oil.’ So quite possibly we will respond to that,” Wright was cited as saying.

In March, the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to release a record 400 million bbls of crude oil from the strategic reserves held by its members, after the US-Iran war effectively shut crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil prices soaring.

The IEA’s members hold more than 1 billion bbls of emergency oil stockpile in reserves, it said earlier.

A new batch of emergency stockpile release will restore some supply concerns in the market – offering merely a superficial bandage, with no power to restore flows via the Saudi oil pipeline or unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

The G7 consists of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, US – and the “non-enumerated member” EU and Australia.

By Aparupa Mazumder

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