IEA Governing Board concludes 2022 collective actions

The decision to conclude the actions was taken by the IEA Governing Board, which is composed of representatives from all 31 IEA Member Countries, at its regular meeting on 21-22 June 2023.

The collective actions were launched in March and April 2022, when IEA Member Countries unanimously agreed to release emergency oil stocks to alleviate the increasing oil market tightness following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The collective actions amounted to 182.7 million barrels, the largest volume of emergency stocks ever released by IEA Member Countries. It also marked the fourth and fifth time such collective action has been taken since the creation of the IEA in 1974.

IEA Member Countries made these volumes available to the market by lowering national stockholding obligations and by releasing oil from strategic public reserves through government-owned or specialised agencies. Deliveries of oil from public reserves were completed by the end of 2022.

As with previous collective actions, the Governing Board instructed IEA Member Countries to exercise flexibility in replenishing their stocks so as to avoid exacerbating any potential market tightness. As such, the stockholding obligation for IEA Member Countries will be reinstated after the first quarter of 2024. However, as oil stocks in nearly all IEA Member Countries are above the 90-day level, the termination of the collective actions will not require further increasing of emergency stock levels.