<span>STORY: :: Canberra, Australia / March 23, 2026</span><span>:: The International Energy Agency chief says member countries will release more oil reserves if necessary</span><span>:: Fatih Birol, International Energy Agency Executive Director</span><span>:: IEA member nations had earlier agreed to release a record 400 million oil barrels to curb global price spikes</span><span>“If needed, we can put more oil in the markets both crude oil and products, if it is needed, therefore again, our stock release will have to comfort the markets but this is not the solution, it will only help to reduce the pain on the economy.” </span><span>“We will see, we look at the markets, if it is necessary of course we will do it. We will look at the conditions, we will analyse, assess the markets and discuss with our member countries.”</span><span>“The single most important solution to this problem is opening up the Hormuz Strait as things stand now.”</span><span>The IEA chief began his world tour in Canberra as the Asia Pacific is at the forefront of the oil crisis, he said, given its reliance on oil and other crucial products like fertilizer and helium transiting the Strait of Hormuz.</span><span>He described the crisis in the Middle East as “very severe” and worse than the two oil shocks of the 1970s, as well as the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on gas, put together.</span><span>The war on Iran had taken 11 million barrels of oil per day from global supply, more than the two prior oil shocks combined.</span>
