IEA Executive Director Ms. Maria van der Hoeven today announced that the collective action taken by IEA Member countries in response to the Libyan supply disruption has been terminated.
This decision to conclude the action was made by the IEA Governing Board at its regular meeting on 14-15 September.
The IEA Governing Board, comprising representatives of all 28 IEA Member countries, concluded that the interrupted Libyan supplies have been successfully addressed by a combination of the IEA collective action and increased production from producer countries, against a backdrop now of weakening expectations for global oil demand growth.
The collective action was launched on 23 June 2011, when the IEA Member countries agreed to make available to the market 60 million barrels of crude oil and oil products. Of these 60 million barrels some 38 million barrels were released from public stocks and 22 million barrels via a relaxation of obligatory industry stockholding. Public stocks were taken up by the market over the course of July and August. Uptake of public stocks has been 97%, compared with 73% at the time of the 2005 collective action.
The IEA Member countries will exercise flexibility in re-establishing their emergency stock levels through 2011 and 2012, noting that the collective action required none of the involved IEA countries to go below the 90-day requirement, and also taking into account seasonal demand patterns.