Oil prices surge above $111 a barrel

The agreement by the US and other major governments to release supplies from strategic stockpiles fails to calm anxiety over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

BEIJING - Oil prices surged another $7 per barrel on Wednesday after an agreement by the United States and other major governments to release supplies from strategic stockpiles failed to calm anxiety over Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose $7.94 to $111.35 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international price standard, gained $7.84 to $112.87 per barrel in London.

The 31 members of the International Energy Agency, the club of major oil consumers, agreed Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of crude from stockpiles to stabilize supplies.

That failed to calm concern about disruption in supplies from Russia, the second-biggest exporter behind Saudi Arabia.

“Markets dismissed the notion that 60 million barrels of strategic reserves released will be consequential to the risks of Russian supply jeopardized,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report. “Russia pumps more than that in just six days.”

IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of 1.5 billion barrels. The release amounts to 4% of stockpiles or roughly 2 million barrels per day for 30 days.

It’s only the fourth time in history that the IEA has done a coordinated drawdown since the reserves were established in the wake of the Arab oil embargo in 1974.