The Austrian parliament approved on Wednesday the release of 325,000 metric tons of crude oil from its strategic reserves, a measure that is part of the initiative recently launched by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to stabilize the oil market, following the escalation of the war in Iran, reports the EFE agency.

The release of this quantity of crude oil, starting April 1, for a period of six months, was adopted within the main committee of the parliament with the required majority of two-thirds of the votes, the parliament informed in a statement, according to Agerpres.

In addition to the deputies of the tripartite coalition in power – the conservatives, social democrats and liberals – the environmentalists – the ‘Greens’ also voted in favor of this measure, while the ultranationalist opposition party FPA voted against it.

The volume of crude oil, equivalent to 2.3 million barrels, will be offered at market prices to energy consortium OMV, the operator of Austria’s only refinery, with the commitment that all fuel produced will be sold exclusively in the country.

Austria currently has full strategic oil reserves, sufficient to cover national consumption for 90 days, a level that will be reduced over the next 11 days if all the oil made available is used.

The release of the crude oil is expected to take place in different phases. The first is an offer of 65,000 tonnes to OMV in April.

Austria opted to offer crude oil rather than refined products stored for emergencies, believing it was “better prepared now than in 2022 (when the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered another energy crisis),” conservative Economy Minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer told lawmakers.

After stressing that security of energy supply was “an absolute priority,” the minister noted, however, that there was still time to refine crude oil into refined products such as gasoline and diesel.