Middle East War: Japan Releases Strategic Oil Reserves

Japan announced on Monday that it's starting to release its strategic oil reserves. This comes after the International Energy Agency had previously signaled that the release would kick off in Asia and Oceania before spreading to other areas.

Members of the IEA decided on March 11 to dip into their oil stockpiles. They aimed to ease the spike in prices resulting from the conflict in the Middle East, making this the biggest coordinated effort of its kind ever.

Japan, which relies on the Middle East for nearly all of its oil imports, published a notice in its official government bulletin on Monday. The notice stated that the nation's oil reserves "are being lowered."

Sending out this notice forces the managers of these reserves to let go of a portion of their supplies to align with the new requirements.

A lot of Japanese media outlets took notice of this as a confirmation that the oil release had already begun.

READ ALSO: Crude Oil Price is Down 8%, Now Trading at $83 After Soaring Amid Middle East Crisis

Minoru Kihara, the main government spokesperson, confirmed on Monday that the country would be releasing enough oil to cover 15 days' worth of private-sector petroleum needs.

Japan’s strategic oil reserves are among the largest in the world and were over 400 million barrels as of December.

The country's reserves are enough to cover 254 days of domestic consumption.

Ryosei Akazawa, the Economy, Trade and Industry Minister, announced on Friday that private oil reserves will be made available before the government's own stockpiles are.

Sanae Takaichi, the Prime Minister of Japan mentioned last week that the country intended to release about a month's worth of its national reserves.

Earlier, the IEA stated that a total of 271.7 million barrels from government-controlled stocks globally would be released.

“Individual implementation plans have been submitted to the IEA by Member countries. These plans indicate that stocks will be made available by IEA Member countries in Asia Oceania immediately,” said the IEA.

“Stocks from IEA Member countries in the Americas and Europe will be made available starting from the end of March,” it added.