OREANDA-NEWS. Japan has started selling oil from the strategic reserve, joining a number of other countries hoping to ease pressure on the oil market through coordinated actions. The Ministry of Commerce of Japan announced that it had put up for sale oil from storage facilities in Sibushi for delivery in the period from March to June.

At the first stage, the Ministry of Trade will sell 100 thousand kiloliters (629 thousand barrels) of oil. The agency is monitoring the situation on the oil market and may announce an additional release of reserves in the future, Bloomberg reports, citing an informed source.

A month earlier, US President Joe Biden announced his intention to sell 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). At the same time, he said that this step was coordinated with China, Japan, India, South Korea and the United Kingdom, which are counting on joint efforts to lower oil prices.

The United States began selling oil from the SPR in early December, and last week South Korea announced that it would release 3.17 million barrels of oil and petroleum products from strategic reserves in the period from January to March 2022. Other parties to the agreement, including China, have not yet announced the steps.