Why emergency oil releases won’t fix this crisis | CNN Business

Investors rattled by the war in Iran have sent oil prices skyrocketing – and global governments have noticed. The world’s biggest economies are now considering emergency releases of millions of barrels of oil into the market. But while that might sound like a lot, experts say even tens of millions of barrels are more like a drop in the bucket when it comes to global oil needs. That’s because the world, and the US, uses so much oil every single day that even a relatively large one-time release won’t be able to offset the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil shipments that’s been effectively shut down by the war. “It’s not zero, but the effect is likely to be pretty small,” said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at energy think tank Resources for the Future, on a coordinated release. “When you sort of consider the volume of global oil trade, just around 100 million barrels per day, even a coordinated SPR (strategic petroleum reserve) release will have a modest impact on global oil prices.” The G7 group of large economies have hinted they could release oil, but they haven’t committed to anything yet. “We stand ready to take necessary me