The International Energy Agency is almost certain not to release more oil stocks onto the market, an official at Germany's state-owned National Petroleum Stockpiling Agency (EBV) said Tuesday.
Eberhard Pott, EBV board director, said he had been told by the German government that a second release would not take place.
"The word from Berlin is that there won't be a second release," he said, adding that this decision would have been made in compliance with the IEA.
"There is a 90% chance the IEA won't do a second release," Pott said.
The IEA ordered 60 million barrels of oil to be released from stocks in June to make up for the shortfall caused by the loss of Libyan production earlier this year.
IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka earlier Tuesday said the IEA was still assessing the impact on markets of oil released from stocks and was consulting with members on whether a further release was needed. GERMAN VOLUMES
Although the IEA has publicly said the release has been a success, the take-up of stocks released by the EBV has been relatively low.
The agency said last week a total of 63% of the stocks it offered has been sold.
Germany's original share of the stock release was 570,000 mt, or 4.2 million barrels of crude and products.
The IEA said last week in a revised breakdown of the IEA stock release that the estimate of how much oil Germany was expecting to put on the market had been cut to 2.77 million barrels.
The reality is even lower -- 63% of the original release estimate is 2.65 million barrels.
"The market demand for the emergency stocks, as well as contacts with the companies, indicate a good supply situation in Germany," the EBV said. The volumes sold by Germany from this year's release are very similar to those from the two previous IEA releases -- during the Persian Gulf war in 1991 and in September 2005 in the wake of shortages in the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Katrina.
In 2005, German companies bought around 60% of the 3.7 million barrels that were released, while during the 1991 release the volumes were around the same.
