Wealthy nations pledge record release of emergency oil reserves in a bid to calm surging prices

PARIS (AP) — A group representing many of the world's wealthiest countries agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the effects of the Iran war on energy markets and the halt of cargo shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The International Energy Agency said it will make 400 million barrels of oil available from its members’ emergency reserves, which is more than double the 182.7 million barrels that the IEA's 32 member countries released in 2022 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA. “But, to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran has attacked commercial ships across the Persian Gulf in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mount and effectively stopping cargo traffic in the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean. Iran has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming to generate enough global economic pain to pressure the U.S. and Israel to end their strikes.

According to the IEA, export volumes of crude and refined products are currently at less than 10% of prewar levels. Birol noted that the situation in natural gas markets is also very challenging, with Asia the most severely affected region.

“There are few options to replace the missing LNG cargoes from Qatar and the Emirates,” he said. “Global energy supply has been reduced by around 20%."

The IEA's announcement came a day after energy ministers from the Group of Seven — the leading industrialized nations of Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and Britain — met in Paris to look at ways to bring down prices. It also came just before G7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, met Wednesday via videoconference.

During his introductory remarks during Wednesday's video call, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the IEA decision to release emergency oil stocks, saying it is “very important” to do everything possible to increase global production and that the 400 million barrels amounted to the equivalent of “20 days of the volume being exported through the Strait of Hormuz.”

The amount pledged by the G7 nations alone comprises 70% of the total, including 14.5 million barrels France will contribute, Macron said, noting that the IEA decision was prepared at the G7 level.

Trump said hours later his administration would tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try and reduce gasoline prices, telling WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati, “Well, we’ll do that and then we’ll fill it up.”

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright later confirmed the U.S. would release 172 million barrels of oil from the SPR as part of the IEA's effort. Wright said the release would begin next week and take roughly 120 days for delivery — and that the administration would then work to replace about 200 million barrels in the next year.

Trump frequently criticized his predecessor Joe Biden's administration for tapping the reserve to try and bring down gas prices.

Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University’s Hydrogen Initiative, said the release would have “a short-term stabilizing effect,” but that it would diminish if the war persists and the Strait of Hormuz remains essentially at a standstill.

“It’s not a silver bullet to solve everything,” Sonin said. “You have to solve the underlying problem.”

Neil Crosby, a vice president of oil analytics at Sparta, which tracks oil trading, said as big as the release is, it amounts to “a little Band-Aid.”

“This scenario was always written off by large parts of the industry: In case we get to the scenario of where there’s a war with Iran, the U.S. Navy will ensure that Hormuz doesn’t stay closed,” Crosby said. “And then we got there, and it’s closed. ... It’s a complete disaster.”

Oil follows snaking journeys that can take weeks to go from drill sites to gas pumps. It must pass through refineries, where it is turned to fuel, before it is shipped off via pipelines and tankers to terminals, and then on to gas stations.

Because of this, no single decision has an immediate impact.

But Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, said the release of reserves will calm markets and prevent wild price swings and could lead to lower prices at the pump in the next week or so. Still, a trade-off is involved by tapping reserves.

“You’re depleting stocks now. That’s always the catch-22,” Medlock said. “You’re selling them today but that means you can’t sell them tomorrow because they’re gone.”

Germany, Austria and Japan said earlier Wednesday that they would release parts of their oil reserves in response to the IEA's request for members to release 400 million barrels.

The IEA reserves were established in 1974 following the Arab oil embargo, and IEA member countries currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.

Germany’s economy ministry, Katherina Reiche, said the IEA asked Germany to release 2.64 million tons — roughly 19.7 million barrels — of its oil reserves.

She said it would take a couple of days before the delivery of the first quantities.

“Germany stands behind the IEA’s most important principle of mutual solidarity,” Reiche said.

The German government also said it will introduce a measure to allow gas stations in Germany to raise fuel prices no more than once a day. The federal government wants to introduce this as quickly as possible, Reiche said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much oil Austria was releasing.

Starting Monday in Austria, price increases at gas stations will be allowed only three times a week, said the country’s economy minister, Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer. He said Austria was releasing part of its emergency oil reserve and extending the national strategic gas reserve, adding: “One thing is clear: in a crisis, there must be no crisis winners at the expense of commuters and businesses.”

IEA nations have released emergency stocks on five previous occasions: During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, during the Libyan civil war in 2011, and twice after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Grieshaber reported from Berlin. Associated Press reporters Matt Sedensky, Cathy Bussewitz and Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, and John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

Big oil tanks are pictured in front the BP refinery in Gelsenkirchen, one of the biggest fuel producers in Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Big oil tanks are pictured in front of the BP refinery in Gelsenkirchen, one of the biggest fuel producers in Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

FILE - Fishermen work in front of oil tankers south of the Strait of Hormuz Jan. 19, 2012, offshore the town of Ras Al Khaimah in United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

Smoke rises from a building following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Signs show the gas prices at a gas station, Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide gathered for May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.

May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, when workers’ unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were being held from Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta to many European capitals and cities across the United States.

“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”

In the United States, activists opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.

Here’s what to know about May Day.

Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East emerged as a key theme in Friday's rallies.

In the Philippines' capital of Manila, large crowds marched to call for higher wages and lower taxes as protesters denounced the United States' role in the Iran war. Some held banners reading “no troops, no bases, no war games, resist U.S.-led wars.” Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the U.S. Embassy.

“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.

In Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto joined a May Day rally in the capital, Jakarta, greeting tens of thousands of people amid a tight police and military presence. Workers called for stronger government protection amid rising prices and difficulties in finding raw materials for their industry.

In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.

“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.

Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.

In Istanbul, police detained some 15 protesters who tried to reach Taksim Square, the epicenter of landmark 2013 protests, in defiance of a government ban.

Turkey's government has long declared the square off-limits for demonstrations on security grounds, but some political parties and trade unions have vowed to march there.

In France, unions called for demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,” linking workers’ daily concerns to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labor abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda.”

In Portugal, proposed labor law changes by the center-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.

May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.

Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.

A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-leaning politicians.

“Don’t touch May Day,” workers' unions said in a joint statement.

Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work to people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.

“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”

Activists and labor unions are organizing street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.

May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”

Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”

Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,

While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would’ve made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.

May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.

In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.

Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”

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AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.

An union member is detained by a Turkish police officer as people try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Union members scuffle with Turkish police officers as they try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)

Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)