IEA to decide on details of diesel stocks release next week as market confusion grows

The West's energy watchdog will meet next week to work out the details of a diesel stock ‌release as market confusion grows over how many barrels Europe and the US plan to make available to address shortages and record-high prices, sources said. Under pressure from US President Donald Trump, the Group of Seven major economies agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from ‌emergency reserves and pledged to refrain from energy export restrictions.

They did not provide a breakdown of the volumes of crude, diesel and other ‌products to be released, however, or say which countries would participate. The governing board of the International Energy Agency, which advises industrialised countries and manages their strategic oil reserves, is expected to decide the details of the stocks release at an October 14-15 board meeting, two people close to the matter said on Tuesday.

The IEA did not immediately respond to ⁠a request ​for comment on what was expected ⁠to be decided at the board meeting. The G7 includes the US, UK, Japan and Canada along with EU nations France, Germany and Italy.

One of the sources said that ⁠G7 member Italy would be part of the release. The EU's oil coordination group will meet on Wednesday, a European Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The White House did ​not immediately respond to a request to clarify details of the stocks release. The Iran war sparked the biggest emergency stock release ever ⁠of 400 million barrels in March, which was coordinated by the IEA.

Announcing the new stocks release, G7 leaders said last Friday they would take into account commitments already fulfilled regarding the ⁠previous ​move. Oil market participants and some EU government officials were trying on Tuesday to work out the finer points of the Friday announcement.

Russell Hardy, chief executive of Vitol, said at a conference in London on Tuesday that the commodities trading house was still trying to understand the details ⁠of the stocks release. "It wasn't a fully transparent announcement about exactly what was being released where," he said.

"And so over the next two weeks, ⁠we'll see tenders coming out from ⁠different bodies, and those tenders will tell us exactly how much oil and in which location it's going to come out."