Energy Aspects: Strategic Oil Reserve Release Faces Delays

Emergency oil reserve releases to compensate for disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz may take weeks to load onto ships, with delivery to final destinations potentially taking even longer. According to Jin10, analysts from Energy Aspects indicate that most countries' oil reserves require approximately two weeks to be released. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) states that strategic oil reserves stored in massive salt caverns along the U.S. Gulf Coast can enter the market within 13 days following a presidential decision. Energy Aspects analysts informed clients that shipping to Asia requires 45 days, meaning any U.S. strategic oil reserve exports would not reach Asian destinations until mid-May at the earliest. Several countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have announced plans to release around 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves. Energy Aspects emphasized the importance of release speed, noting that it is impossible to release all the oil at once. Analysts added that the maximum rate of previous releases was 1.3 million barrels per day, which can only compensate for less than one-tenth of the current supply disruption.