Reuters: China reported on work on the release of oil reserves after a request from the United States 
China spoke about work on the release of oil reserves. Reported by Reuters.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has asked India, Japan, South Korea and China to use the stocks of oil from storage facilities for sale to help contain fuel prices. After that, the Department of State Reserves of China announced that it was working on the release of oil reserves, but did not specify whether this was related to Biden's appeal. Against this backdrop, oil prices fell by about 4 percent – to a six-week low. As of this writing, fuel prices have recovered somewhat. Now a barrel of Brent is worth $ 80.1, according to the ICE stock exchange.
Japan and South Korea have said they will consider using oil from their strategic reserves following a US request. A spokesman for Japan's industry ministry confirmed that Washington has asked Tokyo to cooperate in the fight against rising oil prices. At the same time, the official recalled that according to the law, Japan cannot free up reserves to reduce prices. The US request was confirmed by the official representative of South Korea. “We are carefully studying the US request, but we are not releasing oil reserves due to rising prices. We can free up oil reserves in the event of a supply imbalance, but not in response to price increases, “the official said.
The United States and its allies have already coordinated the simultaneous use of strategic oil reserves, as they did in 2011. when supplies were limited due to the war in Libya. But this time, for the first time, China was asked for help. Biden made the corresponding statement at an online summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the same time, Beijing is keeping secret the level of its strategic oil reserves.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major suppliers, including Russia, are gradually increasing production, lifting restrictions imposed in 2020 due to a decrease demand amid a pandemic. However, OPEC + countries rejected Washington's requests to increase oil production, arguing that the recovery in demand may be unsustainable.