Türkiye has announced that it would release 11.6 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserves as part of the International Energy Agency’s largest-ever coordinated stockpile release.
The country’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday.
A national oil stock committee approved the release, which will take place gradually over 90 days, Bayraktar said during a visit to a coal mine in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.
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“We decided to release 11.6 million barrels from our strategic reserves in support of the IEA’s coordinated release of 400 million barrels,” he told reporters.
IEA earlier on Wednesday recommended that members release a combined 400 million barrels from national stockpiles the largest coordinated action in the agency’s history.
According to Executive Director Fatih Birol, IEA, has 32 member countries and 13 association countries representing roughly 75 per cent of global energy demand.
The coordinated release came amid conflict in the Middle East that has drastically reduced oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz including imports from Iran.
The Malawian government said it has secured a 25-million-dollar grant from the Pandemic Fund to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in the country, according to officials.
The funding was announced by Charles Njuguna, World Health Organisation representative to Malawi, during a meeting with Malawi’s Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation Charles Chilambula in Lilongwe, the capital.
Njuguna said that 8 million dollars of the grant has been earmarked for strengthening the Malawi’s laboratory systems to improve early disease detection and the quality of care.
He said that the support would help strengthen the healthcare system, enhance disease prevention and control, improve immunisation, and address both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Chilambula welcomed the grant, saying it would help address gaps in laboratory capacity through staff training, equipment upgrades and infrastructure improvement.
He added that the funding would also support the introduction of mobile laboratories to improve service delivery during disease outbreaks and emergencies.
In a phone interview with Xinhua on Wednesday, George Jobe, executive director of the Malawi Health Equity Network, said the funding would help ease pressure on the government during health crises but called for prudent management of the resources to maintain donor confidence.
The Pandemic Fund is a multilateral financing mechanism hosted by the World Bank, with the WHO serving as technical lead, to help low- and middle-income countries strengthen health systems against future pandemics.
Xinhua/NAN
