By Yuka Obayashi

Tokyo (Reuters – The U.S.-allied nations agreed on Friday to their second coordinated crude oil release within a month in order to calm market turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion Ukraine. Japan’s ministry of industry said the announcement came a day following Washington’s largest ever oil release.

Hidechika Kojizumi, Director of International affairs at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, explained that members of the International Energy Agency did not come to an emergency meeting and agreed on volume and timing of releases.

Koizumi stated to reporters that “in light of the present situation… participants in the IEA Meeting agreed on an additional release but could not agree upon the total volume or the allocation for each country.”

“The details of the IEA secretariat will be discussed with member countries,” he stated, noting that it could be reached “within a week or two”.

Last March, the 31 member IEA represented industrialized nations and Russia. It presided over almost 62 million barrels of coordinated oil releases.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden authorized a U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve release of 1,000,000 barrels of crude oil per day to make up the shortfall created by sanctions and buyers’ aversion towards Russian oil. This was for six months beginning in May.