The International Energy Agency (IEA) backed the release of 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves on Wednesday, taking the biggest emergency supply steps in its history as markets weighed the risk of disruption through the Strait of Hormuz .”The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol . “Oil markets are global, so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA Members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.” The coordinated release is the sixth in the IEA’s history since its creation in 1974. The agency said its members hold more than 1.2 billion barrels in emergency reserves, alongside another 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. Despite today’s step, the scale of the release is roughly equivalent to 20 days of oil flowing through Hormuz at about 20 million barrels a day, though some exports can still be rerouted through pipelines outside the strait.