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Oil inventories held by OECD subordinate countries fell successful May to their lowest level since 1990 arsenic governments drew down stocks to offset the blockage of Gulf crude shipments during the West Asia conflict, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said connected Wednesday (June 17, 2026).
The drawdown since the commencement of the struggle has reached 163 cardinal barrels successful the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nine of affluent countries, the IEA said successful its monthly report.
“Despite the important reductions successful request for crude lipid and refined products, the buffers successful the strategy proceed to erode astatine a grounds pace,” the bureau said.
To easiness the load from soaring lipid prices owed to Tehran’s effectual closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the IEA organised coordinated banal releases of 400 cardinal barrels to the planetary market, of which 252 cardinal person been released arsenic of June 12.
“The travel of exigency stocks is expected to decelerate somewhat successful June and July,” the bureau said, aft a woody was announced this week to extremity the warfare that began connected February 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes connected Iran.
But the interaction of precocious prices volition measurement heavy connected request done this year, with an expected diminution of 1.1 cardinal barrels a time compared to 2025 levels.
“We spot maturation rebounding to 2 mb/d successful 2027, arsenic a normalisation of commercialized flows, little lipid prices and an improving economical outlook lend to the recovery,” the IEA said.
