“We are going to discuss the measures we can take to ensure the stability of the oil markets,” explained the executive director of the IEA, Fatih Birol, during a discussion organized by The New York Times.

"This extraordinary meeting of the + governing board + at the ministerial level was convened by the United States in order to assess the impacts of the recent collective release of oil stocks and to consider possible additional measures, taking into account the evolution the situation of the world oil supply and the current oil market," the French Ministry of Ecological Transition told AFP.

The IEA announced in early March that its member countries would release 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to stabilize the market after Russia invaded Ukraine.

In addition, US President Joe Biden decided on Thursday evening that one million barrels drawn from US reserves would be injected into the market every day for the next six months, or “more than 180 million barrels”.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has boosted oil prices sharply, while producing countries also continue to restrict their supply.

The producing countries of OPEC + (an alliance that includes Russia) agreed on Thursday to a new modest opening of their black gold valves, ignoring calls to ease pressure on prices.

On March 7, oil was close to its historic price records reached during the 2008 financial crisis. Brent from the North Sea, the benchmark for black gold in Europe, peaked at 139.13 dollars a barrel and WTI American hit 130.50 dollars.

Since then, prices have slipped from their peaks, with a barrel around 100 dollars on Friday.

© 2022 AFP