Group of Seven finance ministers are preparing to debate a coordinated release of strategic oil reserves as they confront surging prices and market turmoil triggered by the escalating conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, according to a senior French government official.

The option, which would be coordinated through the International Energy Agency, is expected to feature prominently when G7 ministers convene in Paris. A French finance ministry official said the meeting would review the economic fallout of the crisis in the Gulf and assess “events of recent days” that have rattled global energy markets.

“The use of strategic reserves is an option being considered,” the French government source said, underscoring that no final decision has yet been taken but that the tool is firmly on the table.

France currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7, which brings together Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Financial Times reported that three G7 members, including the US, have already signalled support for a joint release of emergency stocks.

Oil prices have spiked by as much as 30 percent as traders brace for potential disruptions to supplies from the Middle East, a region that still accounts for a significant share of global crude exports. The price surge has rippled through financial markets, sending Asian equities sharply lower and reviving fears of an inflationary shock to the world economy.

US President Donald Trump has downplayed the impact of higher prices, describing the jump in crude as a “small price to pay” for efforts to neutralise what Washington portrays as Iran’s nuclear threat. The White House has argued that the market reaction will be temporary and that fundamentals remain sound.

The IEA, created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis, is mandated to coordinate collective responses to major supply disruptions. Member countries are required to hold emergency oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of net imports, either in government-controlled reserves or in inventories maintained by private companies.

A coordinated drawdown of those reserves would be one of the most visible signals yet that the G7 is prepared to intervene directly to cushion the global economy from the fallout of the Gulf conflict and to reassure jittery markets that supplies will continue to flow.