The International Energy Agency (IEA) is unlikely to release more oil from emergency reserves as none of its 28 member nations have proposed it, Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.
Oil prices fell after the news, with Brent crude trading down 49 cents on the day at $117.66 a barrel at 0756GMT.
The IEA announced on June 23 the release of 60 million barrels from emergency stockpiles over 30 days in a temporary step to fill a supply gap caused by disruptions in Libyan output. Oil prices fell around 10 percent in the days following the release but have since recovered.
Italy and Germany are particularly sceptical of the value of a further release, according to a Reuters report, and any further measures would require universal agreement between member countries.
The agency will make an announcement on whether it will release additional oil in a matter of hours, Tanaka told Reuters in an interview. The agency would be flexible and would be ready to act and release more oil if necessary, he said.
The unwillingness of IEA countries to act means that, on the terms of their own analysis, there will be a supply squeeze of 1.3 million barrels per above that reckoned by OPEC economists in the third quarter of 2011.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia was expected to increase its oil output to around 10 million barrels per day in July, up around 200,000 bpd from June, Tanaka said.
Saudi Arabia has boosted supply unilaterally after it failed to convince other OPEC members of the need to make a coordinated increase in supply in June.
Tensions betwen the IEA and OPEC have increased markedly since IEA’s intervention, with a war of words between the key actors.
