There’s not much other detail from the report, besides noting that the Japanese government is said to be mulling over releasing an additional amount of oil from its reserves. The timing could be as early as May, with about 20 days’ worth of oil to be released. That according to sources familiar with the matter.

For some context, Japan had earlier last month already release oil from their reserves in two stages. The first was roughly about 45 days’ worth of oil based on domestic demand. Meanwhile, the second was around 30 days’ worth of oil. For more detailed information on that: Japan says to release about one-month supply of crude oil reserves next

As a reminder, Japan had a massive buffer of oil in its reserve capacity right before the US-Iran conflict struck. They had around 254 days’ worth of oil and such a buffer looks to be well justified in this kind of scenario now.

For this latest move, they might just need some coordination with the IEA. But then again, Japan is one of the worst hit nations from the Middle East conflict and potentially warrants special consideration.