Ukraine war: Oil prices slide as Biden weighs huge reserves release

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The price of oil has fallen after reports that the US is going to take new steps to bring down high fuel costs.

The Biden administration is said to be considering releasing up to 180m barrels of oil from the reserve.

This will be the largest release since the reserve was created.

Global energy markets have been rattled in recent weeks by the war in Ukraine.

Ahead of mid-term elections in November, the soaring cost of fuel has become a major political issue.

The White House said that Mr Biden will deliver remarks at 13:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Thursday, on his administration's actions to reduce the impact of Putin's price hike on energy prices.

US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down by 5.6% in morning trade in Asia.

The news of the potential major release of oil by the US came as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies were due to meet on Thursday.

The group of major oil producing nations is expected to stick to their existing deal to increase production.

The cost of oil has gone up in recent weeks, with the price hitting $139 a barrel earlier this month, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow by the US and its allies.

Since then, energy prices have fallen, but the price of oil is still more than 70% higher than it was a year ago.

As economies started to reopen, global energy supplies began to tighten.

Expectations that Russian oil exports could fall by as much as 3m barrels a day made the situation worse.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter.

The majority of major energy producing nations are unwilling to increase output.

The US, which is the largest oil producer in the world, is not enough to meet global demand.

An emergency meeting has been called by the International Energy Agency.

It is not clear if other IEA members will follow the US in releasing oil reserves.

Japan said on Thursday that it will take emergency measures to secure supplies of seven strategic materials it relies on heavily from Russia or Ukraine as the war and sanctions cause disruptions to supplies.

The industry minister said the actions include government support to boost domestic production, alternative procurement and to help technological developments to reduce use of the materials.