WASHINGTON: US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday that it is an opportune time to consider releasing global oil reserves to ease surging energy prices, after a report that the International Energy Agency has proposed to do so.
Oil prices have surged since US-Israeli strikes on Iran killed its supreme leader and plunged the Middle East into war.
Iran’s missile and drone strikes and threats have all but shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane through which 20 percent of global crude and LNG passes.
Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that the IEA has proposed a major release of oil reserves, Burgum told Fox News: “These are the kinds of moments that these reserves are used for.”
“What we have here is not a shortage of energy in the world. We’ve got a transit problem which is temporary,” he said.
“This is the perfect time to think about releasing some of those to take some pressure off of the global price.”
The IEA has proposed the largest release of oil reserves in its history to lower crude prices, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday.
The release involving 400 million barrels of oil would more than double the agency’s biggest prior release after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the report added.
Burgum added that between the US and its allies in the region, there are “a lot of options” to ensure that energy keeps flowing to the global economy.
