Ireland is set to release 1.6 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves as part of an international effort to address supply issues arising from the conflict in the Middle East.
The State has confirmed its participation in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) “collective action”.
The 32 IEA member countries, which includes Ireland, unanimously agreed to make 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves available to the market to “address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East”.
According to the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, Ireland holds 90 days’ supply of stocks of oil.
Ireland’s contribution to the IEA-release of 1.6 million barrels equates to approximately 10.5 days of this supply.
The National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) manages the State’s Strategic Reserves, the Department in a statement saying that it will liaise with NORA on “operationalising this release”.
Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien, said that the Department convened the Oil Security of Supply Group earlier this week “to collate information from the oil industry on the supply situation as it pertains to local markets,” adding that they reported “no immediate supply concerns”.
The decision to take emergency action was made following an extraordinary meeting of IEA Member governments earlier this week, which was convened by the IEA Executive Director to assess market conditions, which are affected by the conflict in the Middle East, and to consider the options to address supply disruptions.
“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”
Criticism of the release has included that it will diminish a considerable share of the world’s oil reserves, leaving nations with impoverished stocks in the event that the disruption is prolonged by ongoing conflict.
The launch of the American/Israeli air campaign against Iran February 28 has seen oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz impeded, with the IEA estimating that export volumes of crude and refined products are “currently at less than 10 percent of pre-conflict levels”.
An average of 20 million barrels per day of crude oil and oil products transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, the IEA said in a statement, which is equivalent to 25 percent of the world’s seaborne oil trade.
Options for oil flows to bypass the Strait of Hormuz are limited, it added.
IEA member states hold emergency oil reserves of over 1.2 billion barrels, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.
The latest coordinated release is the sixth in the 51-year history of the IEA.
Previous actions of a similar nature were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022.