Major nations announced they would release some of their strategic oil reserves as a meeting of G7 leaders was held on Wednesday to address the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from member states' stocks available to the market, the largest such move in its history.
Oil reserves released by the Group of Seven states will represent 70 per cent of the amount announced, French President Emmanuel Macron said in public remarks at the start of a call with other G7 leaders.
“Thanks to the co-ordination of the G7 we had a good working session at the IEA and it was decided to release 400 million barrels which is the equivalent more or less of 20 days of the volumes being exported through the Hormuz strait,” Mr Macron said. France currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7.
US President Donald Trump, who spoke after Mr Macron, responded: “I think we are having a tremendous impact – unbelievable actually – impact on the world.” The rest of the call was not made public.
The price of oil has fluctuated wildly since the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, which began on February 28, sparked retaliation that has disrupted supplies from the Middle East.
Tension has recently increased over the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about one fifth of the world's oil passes.
Three vessels were hit Wednesday by unknown projectiles, bringing the number of ships struck in the region since the Iran conflict began to at least 14. The US said it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelaying vessels after reports indicated that Iran begun laying mines to block commercial ships.
Japan earlier said it plans to release 15 days' worth of private-sector oil reserves and one month's worth of state oil reserves. Germany said it would release 2.4 million tonnes of oil.
Britain was also prepared to release reserves, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Treasury Select Committee, saying the UK was “willing to play its part” to help “ensure that supply remains strong”.
Focus on Hormuz
Mr Macron has argued that the best way to tackle the surge in global oil prices caused by the Iran war is by working towards freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
During the Iran conflict, traffic in the waterway has effectively come to a halt, causing oil prices to soar globally.
G7 leaders discussed setting up over the next weeks an escort mission of commercial ships in coordination of several navies, according to the French president.
"Conditions today are not met. The Strait is a theater of war, but this work must be organized, that is what we have proposed to prepare, in parallel with work with shipping companies, carriers and insurers," Mr Macron said after the call.
'Freedom of movement'
France has said it would use an existing European naval mission to deter Houthi attacks in the Bab Al Mandeb strait as a model. The mission, headquartered in Greece, consists of two French frigates, one Italian and one Greek.
“Thanks to this operation where we are working alongside the Greeks, Italians, and Spanish, we have facilitated the passage of 150 ships in the Red Sea,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a separate interview with TF1. “It is, in a way, a similar mission that we want to implement in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We want to wait until the phase of very high-intensity hostilities ceases so that we can then have a mission in place that permanently guarantees this freedom of movement,” Mr Barrot said.
Questions have been raised about how to best organise convoys in the strait which is only 34km wide at its narrowest point. Mr Barrot has said that escorting ships would respond to attacks in self-defence, raising concerns that Europeans and other participating nations could be dragged into the war.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Tuesday said the American navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, before deleting the post. The White House later clarified no such escort had taken place.
The possibility of the US navy escorting ships remains on the table, yet it appears Europeans want to set up a separate mission to signal it is not a cobelligerent in the war.
“The global economy should not be held hostage by a war between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other,” Mr Barrot said.
Hesitation
France has distanced itself from the war, saying it is neither involved nor supportive of it, and has avoided the harsher rhetoric of Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has described the conflict as dangerous and illegal. Major European states such as Germany and Italy have appeared to support the joint Israeli and US attacks on Iran.
For this reason, Global South leaders, including in India, may be hesitant to join a naval mission with the US's closest military ally. The war is unpopular with the public, who struggle to understand US President Donald Trump's end goal in Iran, said Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, a retired Indian naval officer and director of New Delhi-based think tank the Society for Policy Studies.
“There is no doubt that countries in the Global South are all very adversely impacted by the closure of the Hormuz Strait – whether it's India or China or Japan,” Mr Bhaskar told The National. “But because of the politics around the war, I do not think that any of the major countries would want to get militarily associated with the United States or the EU at this point in time.”
India has in the past co-operated with a European-led mission against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, named Atalanta, without being formally integrated into it. The EU recently strengthened relations with India by signing a free trade deal after decades of talks. Mr Macron was also in India in February for a state visit.
