The International Energy Agency (IEA) is ready to act if “necessary to ensure that markets remain well supplied,” the IEA’s Director for Energy Markets and Security, Keisuke Sadamori, told S&P Global Platts on Friday.
The agency is talking to both oil producers and oil consumers as crude prices recently reached their highest level since November 2014 on the back of heightened geopolitical concerns.
“IEA is discussing and will discuss oil market conditions and outlooks with relevant stakeholders, both oil consumers and producers,” Sadamori told S&P Global Platts when asked if the IEA could call upon oil-producing nations to act.
The comments from the IEA’s official come a day after Khalid al-Falih, the Energy Minister of OPEC’s largest producer Saudi Arabia, said Thursday on Twitter that he had spoken on the phone with a number of fellow ministers, including those of the UAE, USA, Russia, India, and Korea, “to coordinate global action to ease oil market anxiety.”
“I also talked to the Executive Director of #IEA to reassure him of our commitment to the stability of oil markets and the global economy,” al-Falih said in a follow-up tweet.
Last week, the IEA said that the restoration of sanctions on Iran—the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter—may have implications for the market balance, adding that it is closely following the situation.
In its closely watched Oil Market Report this week, the IEA said that oil stocks in developed nations as of March were at their lowest level in three years and 1 million barrels “below the widely cited five-year average figure.”
“For now, the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape will move the attention away from stocks as producers and consumers consider how to limit volatility in the oil market. For its part, the IEA will monitor developments closely and is ready to act if necessary to ensure that markets remain well supplied,” the IEA said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
