PARIS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced on Thursday that its members will release 120 million barrels of crude oil reserves over the next six months, in the face of the global energy shortage caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

       The Governing Board of IEA confirmed that it's the largest stock release in IEA's history.

       IEA said the "unanimous" agreement to release the stock was reached by its 31 member countries on April 1.

       It is the IEA's second release of reserves since the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In a first step, 62.7 million barrels of crude oil were freed up on March 1.

       Prior to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, IEA member countries held emergency stockpiles of 1.5 billion barrels.