[G7 Announces Release of 100 Million Barrels of Strategic Oil, Europe Refuses to Increase Reserves: Most May Only Fulfill March's Old Quota] BlockBeats News, October 7, according to a Bloomberg report citing an internal EU meeting memo, EU member states generally believe that the G7's announcement last week to coordinate the release of 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel does not imply that Europe needs to significantly draw on strategic reserves beyond previous commitments. The EU tends to limit the subsequent release scale to the quotas agreed upon in March this year, meaning there may be a significant difference between the G7's stated "100 million barrels" and the actual future additional supply. The G7 previously announced that, under the coordination of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a total of 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel would be released over the next four months, with a priority on diesel being released significantly earlier within the first 20 days. However, as of now, no EU member state has explicitly committed to adding new stockpile releases within this timeframe. In March this year, IEA member countries had agreed on a plan to release approximately 400 million barrels of strategic crude oil and refined products, with EU member states collectively accounting for about 20% of the total. As of early October, about two-thirds of the quota has been fulfilled, with some portions still pending release. The prevailing stance within the EU is to complete existing commitments rather than expand the overall release scale. Some countries have called on the IEA to first assess the impact of previous releases on the market and energy security. Regarding diesel, Europe may agree to advance the release of existing quotas originally scheduled for later, but is unwilling to "add more" beyond that. European decision-makers are concerned that, given the fragile supply chains in the Middle East and rising energy demand during winter, prematurely depleting strategic reserves could weaken their ability to respond to subsequent supply shocks. [Original Link]