Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) gestures as he speaks at a press conference on day two of the International Summit on the Future of Energy Security at Lancaster House in London, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, Pool)

By The Canadian Press

Iran war supply jolt underscores importance of emergency oil reserves: expert

Mar 11, 2026 | 9:02 AM

CALGARY — An oil market expert says the supply jolt triggered by war raging in the Middle East underscores why it’s important for countries — including Canada — to keep energy stored in reserve in case of emergency.

Rory Johnston, author of the Commodity Context newsletter, says the International Energy Agency’s stipulation that only net importers need to hold supplies in reserves is an “old school view” that doesn’t fit the current state of the world.

The International Energy Agency has agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil available from its members’ emergency reserves — far eclipsing the nearly 183 million barrels that were released four years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Johnston says it will be important to find out the daily rate at which those barrels will be released into the market, but it’s unlikely to fill the 20-million-barrel-a-day supply gap the world is currently contending with.

Johnston expressed disbelief that it’s taken this long for emergency reserves to be tapped, given that energy supply disruptions were a predictable outcome of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, which has since spilled over into several countries in the region.

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The Strait of Hormuz, a strategically vital waterway connecting the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, has been all but shuttered and there has been damage to several pieces of energy infrastructure in the region.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2026.

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press