By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Oil was down Tuesday morning in Asia, as expectations that  grows.

They were at $79.47, down 0.2% by 10:00 ET (03:22 GMT), and at $76.36, down 0.53%.

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Energy will announce later that day a loan of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This could potentially involve over 35 million barrels of oil. According to Reuters, however, this number is susceptible to changes.

Key oil players such as India, Japan, and South Korea are expected to take part in the release while China, the world’s biggest oil importer, said it could also tap its reserves.

India has yet to determine the volume and timing of India’s contribution. Japan, however, believes it is legally able to tap its excess stockpiles. However Japan did not provide a time frame for release.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+), however, argued that the release of millions of crude oil barrels was not justified given current market conditions. The cartel might reconsider its plans to increase supply next week.

Several investors also stressed the importance of the announcement. “A 35-million-barrel release from the U.S. would be significant. We are seeing something quite substantial when you take into account the potential volumes of other countries. The risk of further COVID-19 related restrictions this winter and potential SPR releases might be enough to persuade OPEC+ to pause supply increases,” ING Groep Warren Patterson is the head of commodities strategies at Bloomberg.

The fuel demand worries are being triggered by the rising number of COVID-19 in Europe.

Louise Dickson, Rystad Energy analyst, stated that “As Europe and especially Eastern Europe struggle to halt COVID-19’s spread, the risk for lockdown-like measures looms large.”

She said that oil prices would not be spared if a European wave of lockdowns was enacted during flu season.