Recently, affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and severe Western sanctions against Russia, the international oil price rose above $100 a barrel. In order to cool oil prices, the International Energy Agency held an interim ministerial meeting on March 1 and decided to jointly release 60 million barrels of crude oil reserves. Although the market has expected the above news, the international oil price still rose sharply in the morning of the day. The increase narrowed only slightly after the International Energy Agency announced the release of crude oil reserves. In subsequent transactions, international oil prices continued to rise. As of the close of the day, the price of light crude oil futures for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by $7.69 to close at $103.41 a barrel, or 8.03%, and the highest intraday rise was $106.78 a barrel; London Brent crude oil futures for delivery in May rose $7 to close at $104.97 a barrel, or 7.15%, rising as high as $107.57 a barrel. Market analysts believe that the reason why the decision of the International Energy Agency to release crude oil reserves failed to effectively cool the oil price is that the scale of the released reserves is lower than the market expectation, which is insufficient compared with the global crude oil consumption and potential short supply. In addition, the scale of the actual reduction of Russian crude oil supply is still difficult to determine, and the prospect of the Ukrainian crisis is unclear, which also aggravates the market's concerns about the further deterioration of the energy supply situation. The International Energy Agency announced on the 1st that its 31 member states decided to release 60 million barrels of crude oil reserves at the interim ministerial meeting held on the same day, including 30 million barrels of crude oil reserves promised by the United States. Media previously reported that members of the International Energy Agency may release 70 million barrels of crude oil reserves, and the scale of crude oil reserves released by the United States is 40 million barrels. The International Energy Agency said that its members have a total of 1.5 billion barrels of emergency crude oil reserves. The scale of the decision to release accounts for about 4% of the total, which can be released for 30 days according to the scale of 2 million barrels a day. This is the fourth joint release of crude oil reserves since the establishment of the International Energy Agency in 1974. It is estimated that the crude oil reserves released by members of the International Energy Agency this time are equivalent to Russia's crude oil production in 6 days or crude oil export in 12 days. U.S. energy secretary Jennifer Granholm announced on the same day that the decision of the International Energy Agency is committed to dealing with the serious market and supply shocks related to the conflict in Ukraine. The United States will release 30 million barrels of strategic crude oil reserves. If necessary, the United States is prepared to take more measures as appropriate. Matt Smith, chief oil analyst of Kepler company in the Americas, a market research institution, said that in view of the delay between the announcement and the real inflow of crude oil into the market, the biggest impact of the release of crude oil reserves by the International Energy Agency is expected to be the impact on market psychology. Bob yoger, head of energy futures business of Mizuho Securities USA, said that 60 million barrels of crude oil had little effect on changing the situation and was not enough to offset the loss of Russian crude oil supply. "In short, 60 million barrels is not enough." Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at Imperial Commercial Bank of Canada, said that the crude oil reserves released this time can provide a mild buffer in the short term, but it is insufficient compared with the scale of Russian crude oil supply interruption. In addition, some analysts pointed out that in addition to the short supply board, factors such as declining willingness to buy, payment bottlenecks and financing difficulties may also hinder transactions and exacerbate the rise in oil prices. Affected by uncertainty, commodity consumers are increasingly reluctant to buy oil, liquefied natural gas, coal, metals and grain from Russia, said Carsten Frisch, a commodity analyst at Commerzbank. Frich said that many Russian banks were excluded from the global Interbank Financial Communication Association (Swift) system, making it more difficult to pay for the goods. In addition, some Western banks refused to finance these transactions. Michael Lynch, President of the US energy economy strategy research and consulting company, said that in the case of escalating conflict, the market reaction showed that the market expected a significant reduction in Russian crude oil supply. Traders believe that the release of crude oil reserves is a prelude to greater sanctions and further reduction of crude oil supply in the West. In addition, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau recently announced a ban on oil imports from Russia, becoming the first western country to impose an oil embargo on Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine. The signal released disturbed the market. The organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non OPEC oil producing countries are scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting on April 2 to discuss the crude oil production quota in April. The market expects that OPEC and non OPEC oil producing countries will continue to implement the production increase plan for several months. (Xinhua News Agency)