France has so far released 580,000 barrels of oil — around four per cent of its total pledge — as part of the International Energy Agency’s emergency drawdown of strategic stockpiles in response to the US-Israel war on Iran, Al Jazeera reports French Finance Minister Roland Lescure.
France had pledged to release 14.6 million barrels as IEA member countries agreed to make 400m barrels available to the market, the largest such action in the organisation’s history.
Finance and energy ministers of the G7 group of nations – which France chairs this year – will meet on Monday along with central bankers, Lescure has added.
