Oil famine: the world's leading economies are opening up strategic reserves

Against the background of the situation around Iran, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Group of Seven (G7) have proposed the release of oil from government reserves. Germany and Japan were the first to announce the deployment of national strategic reserves. Read more about the situation with energy resources in the world in the Izvestia article.

Oil release due to the situation in the Middle East

The G7 member countries (Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the USA, France and Japan) supported the introduction of proactive measures to respond to the situation on the energy markets. Among them is the use of strategic reserves. This is stated in a joint statement by the G7 energy ministers.

"We discussed the current conflict in the Middle East, its impact on the global energy sector, the security of oil and gas supplies, as well as energy prices in our countries and beyond... We support the implementation of proactive measures to resolve the situation, including the use of strategic reserves," the communique says.

This was previously reported by the IEA. They proposed to carry out "the largest release of oil reserves in its history in order to lower crude oil prices, which rose during the war between the United States and Israel with Iran." According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, we are talking about 400 million barrels.

The unsealing of national strategic oil reserves has already been announced in Germany and Japan.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced that the release would take place on March 16. She added that this would primarily affect private reserves with a volume of 15 days of consumption, as well as public reserves designed for one month under current conditions. For Japan, this will be the first time that oil has been released from national reserves since 1978, when a similar mechanism was created in the country.

A similar step was announced in Germany. This was reported by the DPA agency, citing sources. The volume of oil in question is not specified. Earlier, Handelsblatt wrote that 19.5 million barrels were supposed to be released from the national reserves, which is about a fifth of all German reserves.

Druzhba pipeline: commission on reopening

On March 11, a Hungarian commission headed by Secretary of State Gabor Cepek traveled to Ukraine to inspect the Druzhba oil trunk pipeline and negotiate the resumption of its work.

According to the Secretary of State for International Communications and Relations in the Office of the Prime Minister of the country, Zoltan Kovacs, during the visit to Kiev, Hungarian experts will also meet with representatives of the European Union to discuss ending Ukraine's blockade of oil supplies from Russia.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the creation of a commission to determine the state of Friendship last week, but Ukraine did not allow it on its territory.

Oil supplies from the Druzhba oil refinery to refineries in Hungary and Slovakia stopped after a fire at the Brody oil pumping station near the city of Lviv. Since then, the refineries have been provided with oil from the strategic reserves of Hungary and Slovakia, as well as through oil supplies via an alternative route — the Adria MNP (Adriatic Pipeline).

In response to the suspension of Russian oil supplies, Hungary stopped diesel supplies to Ukraine and blocked an EU loan of 90 billion euros. According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Kiev is trying to provoke an energy crisis in the country before the elections.

How much oil do countries have?

According to the IEA, there are currently about 1.2 billion barrels of oil in the state strategic storage facilities of the agency's member countries, and another 600 million barrels are industrial reserves under government obligations.

G7 oil reserves:

— USA. As of early March, the United States has 439.3 million barrels of commercial oil reserves. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve had 415.4 million barrels of crude oil as of February 27.;

— Japan. The state reserves of crude oil amount to 260 million barrels. Another 180 million barrels of oil equivalent fuel are stored in private reserves (of which 90 million barrels are crude oil);

— Germany. According to the country's Ministry of Economy, the government has 110 million barrels of crude oil and 67 million barrels of finished petroleum products at its disposal, which can be released within a few days.;

— France. The reserves of crude oil and petroleum products at the end of 2024 amounted to about 120 million barrels. Another 39 million are held by the country's oil operators.;

— Italy. By law, the country is required to have about 76 million barrels of oil in storage. The actual figure is unknown;

— Great Britain. As of February 26, oil reserves amounted to about 38 million barrels of crude oil and 30 million barrels of petroleum products.

— Canada. The country does not have strategic reserves. However, Canada is the fourth largest producer of crude oil in the world. In December 2025, the country was producing more than 5 million barrels per day.

Gasoline prices in Europe

Due to the situation around Iran, gasoline has become more expensive in European countries. On March 10, the German automobile club ADAC announced that the price per liter of E10 gasoline (95th) in the country for the first time since 2022 exceeded the mark of 2 euros (193 rubles), diesel fuel rose to 2.23 euros (205 rubles).

The increase in fuel costs has forced Europeans to look for more affordable alternatives. There have already been reports that German drivers have bought up all the cans at Polish border gas stations. This is due to the fact that in Poland, a liter of 95 costs less than 1.6 euros (145 rubles).