Mar 12, 2026
3 min read
Iran has promised to prevent ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than 20% of the world's production passes;now members of the International Energy Agency have agreed to put stored oil on the market.
The 32-nation effort to break through the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz holds the largest oil reserves in history.
-Author, Atahualpa Ameris
- Ipa, News World
- Reading time: 6 minutes
The International Energy Agency (IEA) will release 400 million barrels of oil to compensate for the loss of supplies caused by the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war.
The announcement was made this Wednesday (11/3) by executive director Fatih Birol, after the Iranian government threatened that "not one liter of oil" would pass through the sea corridor, which has so far transported more than 20% of this important source of energy in international transport.
Birol said the 32 member countries voted unanimously for the largest release of oil reserves in the history of the International Energy Agency.
The IEA is an international body that coordinates the energy policy and strategic oil reserves of 32 industrialized countries, mainly advanced economies in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
The list of members mainly includes Western Europe (such as France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain), as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Turkey and the USA. Brazil is considered a country "in the process of joining".
An "unheard of" measure
"The challenges we face in the oil market are on an unprecedented scale, so I am happy that the member countries of the IEA have responded with urgent collective action on an equally unprecedented scale," said the executive director.
The agency said that emergency reserves will be available on the market in a period that is appropriate for the national situation of each member state.
400 million barrels of oil is the equivalent of four days of global consumption, or as much as flows through the Strait of Hormuz in 20 days under normal circumstances.
The IEA has approved a consolidated release of oil stocks, having done so in 1991, 2005, 2011 and twice in 2022.
According to the organization itself, its members hold more than 1.2 billion barrels in emergency reserves, in addition to another 600 million held by the oil industry under legal obligations imposed by governments.
Before the Iran war broke out, Brent and WTI crude oil prices were both in the $60 range, relatively low compared to historical data due to abundant supply.
The dispute raised the price per barrel to more than $100, but has recently been adjusted to between $80 and $90.
In any case, gas prices have risen in almost every country, and many governments have begun to consider emergency measures in case the crisis worsens.
Iran threatens oil at $200
In the meantime, the Iranian government announced on Wednesday that it has ended its policy of attacks from the weekend to focus on blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
Experts interpret this strategy as an attempt to use control of the straits to raise prices and increase the economic costs of war for the United States and its allies.
Tehran's policy will now be "attack after attack," Ibrahim Zolfakhari, a spokesman for the Khatam Al Anbiya military command center in Tehran, said in a statement.
Ele afirmou que o Irã não permitirá que "nem um único litro de petróleo" atravesse o Estreito de Ormuz com destino aos Estados Unidos, a Israel e a seus aliados.
"Any ship or tanker that turns to them will be a legitimate target. Get ready for a barrel of oil to reach $200 because the price of oil depends on regional security that has destabilized it."
The prices of 'war', according to Trump
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called rising oil prices "an issue of war" and said financial markets should "get back to normal" soon, in a press statement.
He assured that his military forces “have so far attacked 28 ‘mining ships’”, referring to Iranian ships allegedly destined to attack commercial ships with mines in Hormuz.
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The U.S. military, which has been seeking to neutralize a military threat to maritime traffic in the strait for days, has hinted at the possibility of an imminent attack on ports on Iran's southern coast.
United States Central Command (Centcom) warned Iranian civilians to "immediately avoid" all ports along the strait where the country's naval forces are active.
Centcom said the Iranian regime was using civilian ports for “military operations that threaten international shipping.”
The warning message said that this dangerous act puts the lives of innocent people at risk.
The report notes that civilian ports used for military purposes lose their protected status and become "legitimate military targets under international law".
Earlier, Centcom released images of what it described as 16 Iranian minesweepers destroyed near the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump announces this Wednesday - this time to the Axios news portal - that war will happen "soon" and there will be "almost nothing left to attack".
"If I want it to end, it will end," he said.
In turn, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the war would "continue indefinitely."
He claimed that the conflict would continue as long as necessary and until all the goals of the joint Israeli-American campaign, which began on February 28, were achieved, according to the Reuters newspaper and the Times of Israel.
The situation of manufacturers in the Middle East
In this situation, some producing countries in the region are trying to find alternatives to solve the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia is increasing the flow of oil through its east-west pipeline network while other Gulf oil nations are cutting production, News Middle East correspondent Samir Hashmi reports from the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The 1,200-kilometer pipeline will carry oil from fields in the Persian Gulf to other countries in the Red Sea, allowing shipments to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
Due to the current crisis, the Saudi East-Kulon pipeline is carrying around 2.8 million barrels of oil every year.
Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi oil giant Aramco, confirmed on Tuesday (10/03) that they are now increasing flows to their maximum capacity of about 7 million barrels per day as tankers shift loading operations to Red Sea ports.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among the few Gulf oil producers with pipelines that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
The Abu Dhabi pipeline in the United Arab Emirates can send about 1.8 million barrels a day to the port of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman.
But even at full capacity, pipelines operated by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will carry less than half the oil that normally flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
Other producers in the Persian Gulf that do not have similar alternatives, such as Kuwait and Iraq, have already started cutting production.
Amin Nasser described the current disruption as "the biggest crisis the oil and gas industry in the region has ever faced".
