Statement by IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol on meeting of G7 Energy Ministers at IEA headquarters

Today, the IEA hosted a meeting of G7 Energy Ministers at our headquarters in Paris, chaired by Minister Roland Lescure of France, which holds the G7 Presidency. At the meeting, I provided an update on the IEA's view of the situation in global oil and gas markets, which have been significantly affected by the conflict in the Middle East.

In oil markets, conditions have deteriorated in recent days. In addition to the challenges of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a substantial amount of oil production has been curtailed. This is creating significant and growing risks for the market. We discussed all the available options, including making IEA emergency oil stocks available to the market. IEA Member countries currently hold over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.

Given conditions in oil markets, I have convened an extraordinary meeting of IEA Member governments, which will take place later today to assess the current security of supply and market conditions to inform a subsequent decision on whether to make emergency stocks of IEA countries available to the market.

As well as IEA Members, I am also in close contact about the situation with energy ministers from key energy producers and consumers around the world.