{"id":55810,"date":"2026-03-25T10:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=55810"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:49:33","slug":"japan-pm-takaichi-asks-iea-chief-for-further-oil-stockpile-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=55810","title":{"rendered":"Japan PM Takaichi asks IEA chief for further oil stockpile release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Reuters)   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TOKYO, March 25 &#8211; Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi asked International Energy Agency chief \u200bFatih Birol for an additional coordinated release of oil stockpiles when they \u200cmet on Wednesday, as Tokyo seeks to hedge against a prolonged Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After agreeing to release a record amount of oil stockpiles in coordination with the \u200bIEA to cover for the Middle East&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/israel-strikes-tehran-trump-says-us-negotiating-end-war-2026-03-25\/\">supply loss<\/a>, Takaichi on \u200bTuesday said Japan would also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/japan-start-releasing-oil-joint-stockpiles-by-end-march-pm-says-2026-03-24\/\">open up<\/a>&nbsp;joint oil stockpiles co-owned \u2060by producing nations in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Australia this week ahead \u200bof a Group of Seven meeting, Birol&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/iea-consulting-with-governments-further-oil-stock-releases-chief-birol-says-2026-03-23\/\">said<\/a>&nbsp;the IEA is consulting with \u200bgovernments in Asia and Europe about the release of more stockpiles &#8220;if necessary,&#8221; as the Iran war disrupts flows from the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In preparation for the possibility that \u200bthe situation becomes prolonged, I asked that preparations be made for \u200ban additional coordinated release,&#8221; Takaichi said in a social media post. &#8220;We will continue \u200cto \u2060work closely with the IEA.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The joint release of 400 million barrels, agreed upon on March 11, is only 20% of the oil and oil-product stocks held by consuming nations that the IEA is coordinating, Birol \u200bsaid in Tokyo \u200bon Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If and \u2060when necessary, we are ready to move forward, but I very much hope that it will not \u200bbe necessary,&#8221; Birol said after meeting Takaichi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are 45 \u200bJapan-related \u2060ships that are still stranded in the Gulf as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, said Hitoshi Nagasawa, chairman of the Japan Shipowners&#8217; Association \u2060and \u200balso head of Japan&#8217;s NYK Group&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/companies\/9101.T\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">(9101.T), opens new tab<\/a>, one \u200bof the world&#8217;s largest shipping companies, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) TOKYO, March 25 &#8211; Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi asked International Energy Agency chief \u200bFatih Birol for an additional coordinated release of oil stockpiles when they \u200cmet on Wednesday, as Tokyo seeks to hedge against a prolonged Middle East conflict. After agreeing to release a record amount of oil stockpiles in coordination with the \u200bIEA to cover for the Middle East&nbsp;supply loss, Takaichi on \u200bTuesday said Japan would also&nbsp;open up&nbsp;joint oil stockpiles co-owned \u2060by producing nations in the country. In Australia this week ahead \u200bof a Group of Seven meeting, Birol&nbsp;said&nbsp;the IEA is consulting with \u200bgovernments in Asia and&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55812,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55810\/revisions\/55812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}