US to release 172 million barrels of oil from strategic petroleum reserve

WASHINGTON: The U.S. will ​release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic ‌petroleum reserve in a bid to reduce oil prices that have soared due to supply shocks from the U.S.-Israeli war on ​Iran, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on ​Wednesday.

Wright said the release is part of a broader ⁠release of 400 million barrels of oil agreed ​to by the 32-nation International Energy Agency earlier in the ​day.

Wright said the release will begin next week and will take about 120 days to deliver.

The U.S. and Israel began attacks on ​Iran on February 28. Iran has responded with its ​own strikes on Israel and Gulf countries with U.S. bases.

Raising the ‌stakes ⁠for the global economy, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless the U.S. and Israeli attacks cease. The war ​has shaken markets ​around the ⁠world.

When asked earlier on Wednesday whether he was looking at the threshold for the ​strategic petroleum reserve, President Donald Trump said Washington ​will "reduce ⁠it a little bit."

"The United States has arranged to more than replace these strategic reserves with approximately 200 million ⁠barrels ​within the next year," the U.S. ​energy secretary said in a statement.