{"id":68506,"date":"2026-03-10T18:32:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=68506"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:43:12","slug":"india-oil-reserves-iea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/10-03-2026\/india-oil-reserves-iea","title":{"rendered":"India Refuses IEA&#8217;s Call to Release Strategic Oil Reserves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/IR; GS3\/Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India is not going to join the <strong>International Energy Agency (IEA) initiative<\/strong> to release <strong>strategic oil reserves<\/strong> as part of an effort to cool oil prices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India is the<strong> world&#8217;s third-largest oil-importing and consuming nation<\/strong>, and has 5.33 million tonnes of underground strategic reserves. But they are only 80% filled currently.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Due to the West Asia conflict<\/strong> the crude prices jumped close to USD 120 per barrel, the highest in four years.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>G7 nations are due to \u200bdiscuss the <strong>possible release of oil reserves to calm markets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India is<strong> not a full member of IEA<\/strong> and does not have an obligation to follow the mandate of the international body.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><strong>India\u2019s Oil Imports<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India imports <strong>nearly 88%<\/strong> of its crude oil requirements from around <strong>41 countries.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Roughly half of those supplies in February passed through the Strait of Hormuz.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In February 2026, India received 2.8 million bpd crude, accounting for 53% of total imports, from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As of early 2026, <strong>Russia remains the largest supplier<\/strong> of crude oil to India, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq following closely as key suppliers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>International Energy Agency (IEA)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Established:<\/strong> In 1974.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The IEA\u2019s founding members were<\/strong> Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, T\u00fcrkiye, United Kingdom, and the United States.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reason:<\/strong> It was created when major oil-exporting countries drastically reduced oil supplies, causing severe economic disruptions in industrialized nations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mandate: <\/strong>IEA\u2019s original mandate was to ensure that oil supplies were kept stable, and potential disruptions in future were anticipated and prevented through timely action.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It also developed an elaborate mechanism to deal with oil emergencies in future, making it mandatory for every member country to maintain certain minimum strategic stocks of oil.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Members: <\/strong>The membership was kept open only for OECD countries.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There are now 33 full members with Colombia being inducted as 33rd members recently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Associate Members: <\/strong>In 2015, IEA opened the doors for non-OECD countries to become associate members.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The associate members participate in the policy discussions and activities, but do not have decision-making rights.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India became an associate member in 2017. There are 13 associate members right now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><strong>Organisation for Economic Co-operation &amp; Development (OECD)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The OECD is an intergovernmental organisation that promotes economic development, policy coordination, and global cooperation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Motto:<\/strong> \u201cBetter Policies for Better Lives.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Established in <strong>1961<\/strong>, succeeding the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Headquarters: <\/strong>Paris, France.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Membership: <\/strong>38 member countries (mainly developed economies). India is not a member.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstoday.in\/india\/story\/those-responsible-have-to-deal-with-it-india-refuses-ieas-call-to-release-strategic-oil-reserves-519808-2026-03-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>BT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> India is not going to join the International Energy Agency (IEA) initiative to release strategic oil reserves as part of an effort to cool oil prices. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> About <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> India is the world&#8217;s third-largest oil-importing and consuming nation, and has 5.33 million tonnes of underground strategic reserves. But they are only 80% filled currently. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Due to the West Asia conflict the crude prices jumped close to USD 120 per barrel, the highest in four years. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> G7 nations are due to \u200bdiscuss the possible release of oil reserves to calm markets. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/10-03-2026\/india-oil-reserves-iea \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68506"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68513,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68506\/revisions\/68513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}