PARIS – The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 28 member countries agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the coming month to address the disruption of oil supplies from Libya. The Agency made this decision due to its expectation that seasonal demand will make this shortfall worse.

IEA member countries plan to make 2 million barrels of oil per day available from their emergency stocks during an initial 30-day period. The IEA said it estimates that the civil war in Libya resulted in the loss of 132 mb of light sweet crude from the market as of the end of May.

IEA said total oil stocks in its member countries are at more than 4.1 billion barrels and that almost 1.6 billion barrels of this amount are public stocks held for emergency use.

The IEA said its governing board will review the effect of this release of oil reserves on the market 30 days from the date of the organization’sannouncement (the release is dated June 23).