Oil price falls as IEA pours in reserves

The oil price fell by $6 after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it would make available an extra 60m barrels.

The UK will contribute 3m barrels out of the total, which will be released at a rate of 2m barrels per day in an effort to stop the high oil price stifling the global economy, the Telegraph reports.

Officials from the IEA said it had moved to replace the 1m barrels per day lost when Libya plunged into civil war this spring. However, this lost output has already been made up by Saudi Arabia.

Experts believe the release is more an economic reaction to concerns that prices above $110 per barrel, having hit $125, are seriously denting demand and therefore growth in developed countries.

Immediately after the IEA said it would dip into its 1.6bn barrel "emergency" reserve for only the third time ever, the price of benchmark London crude dropped $6, or 5%, to just below $108 per barrel.

The move puts pressure on Opec, the cartel of 12 oil-producing countries, that this month refused to dampen prices by selling more oil.