Crude oil prices fall on reports of IEA proposal for reserve release; Brent oil slips below $88 a barrel

Crude oil prices declined on Wednesday after a report said that the International Energy Agency (IEA) proposed the largest release of oil reserves in its history to bring down crude prices that have soared amid the US-Iran war.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the release would exceed the 182 million barrels of oil that IEA member countries put onto the market in two releases in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Brent crude oil price fell 0.26% to $87.57 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined 0.44% to $83.08.

Overnight, US WTI crude and Brent front-month crude futures settled down over 11%.

Brent crude oil prices have risen nearly 50% since the start of the year due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles one-fifth of global oil flows.

Crude oil prices experienced their largest single-day decline in four years on Tuesday, driven by increased market volatility following mixed signals from the Trump administration regarding the Iran war.

US-Iran War

The US-Iran war has entered its second week with no indication of de-escalation. President Donald Trump warned Iran against placing mines in a critical energy chokepoint after reports suggested Iran was preparing to do so or had already started.

“If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump posted Tuesday on social media. He said removing them would be “a giant step in the right direction!”

The US and Israel pounded Iran with what the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground called the most intense airstrikes of the war.

Meanwhile, the Group of Seven nations asked their main energy agency to prepare scenarios for the release of emergency oil reserves, Bloomberg reported.

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(With inputs from Agencies)