The US Department of Energy announced a 120-day release of 172 million barrels of crude oil to secure energy markets, though state-aligned Iranian media argues the measure exposes America's inability to cover the supply deficits caused by the ongoing war.
The United States Department of Energy has announced a significant drawdown of its strategic crude oil reserves in an effort to stabilize global energy markets. Iran International ایران اینترنشنال, a foreign-based outlet generally critical of the Iranian government, reports that the US will release 172 million barrels of crude oil into the market. This initiative is scheduled to begin on Monday and will unfold over a period of 120 days to ensure energy market security.
However, domestic Iranian media is framing the US intervention as highly inadequate given the scale of recent global supply disruptions. آخرین خبر, a state-aligned news channel that frequently highlights Western vulnerabilities, contrasted the US plan with the impact of an ongoing 12-day war. The channel claims that while 230 million liters of oil have been removed from global supply during the conflict, the US intends to supply "only 172 million" over a much longer 120-day timeframe.
Emphasizing perceived American weakness, آخرین خبر also cited a Bloomberg analyst to argue that the intervention is structurally insufficient. The channel noted that the oil market has realized the US's hand to control the market is "much more closed than ever."
Akharinkhabar uses the specific unit '230 million liters' (۲۳۰ میلیون لیتر) when describing the global supply drop, but then uses '172 million oil' without a unit when referring to the US reserve release. Given that 230 million liters equals roughly 1.4 million barrels (an extremely small amount for a 12-day global supply shock), this is almost certainly a unit error by the original Persian author confusing barrels and liters. It was translated literally as 'liters' in the digest to maintain strict fidelity to the source text.