<Anchor> The
international community, led by the United States, has decided to cooperate with the skyrocketing oil price. While Korea also agreed to participate, China, the United States, and India decided to release the oil reserves held by them.
Correspondent Kim Jong-won from New York.
[Reporter]
US President Biden announced today (24th) that he has decided to release 50 million barrels of oil from the stockpile to counter the soaring oil price.
[Joe Biden/President of the United States: To meet the demand for gasoline (which arises during the recovery phase of the coronavirus), today I am announcing the largest strategic oil release in history.]
President Biden said he had discussed with international leaders this time together We have listed the countries we have decided to do so one by one.
[Joe Biden/President of the United States: In addition, India, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom have agreed to join forces in this oil reserve action. China also agreed to join.]
This is the fourth time that the international community has cooperated in this way, and in 1991, 2005, and 2011, each country released oil reserves due to wars in the Middle East or natural disasters in major oil-producing countries. .
At that time, cooperation was made under the leadership of the International Energy Agency, but this time, each country voluntarily came together to respond.
Another difference is that this time, it is not because of production disruptions in oil-producing countries, but because of an unprecedented global epidemic.
In particular, it is also meaningful that the United States and China, which are in conflict with each other, participated together for the first time.
In the United States, in a situation where energy-based inflation is serious, such as a 61% rise in gasoline prices in the past year, this measure is expected to temporarily drop oil prices and is expected to have the effect of putting pressure on oil-producing countries to increase oil production. .