The International Energy Agency is poised to call for the largest release of government oil reserves in its history to help calm the oil price shock triggered by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The world’s energy watchdog is expected to call on its 32 members to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of the group’s total government stockpiles and more than double the IEA’s previous biggest release.

The emergency intervention, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would easily outstrip the 182m barrels of oil put on the market by IEA countries across two releases in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Under the terms of the plan, the body’s 32 member states would reportedly have up to 90 days to release oil stocks into the global market, which has lost almost 20m barrels of crude a day because of a block on trade via the Strait of Hormuz.