Italy open to more oil stock releases if European countries meet pledges

Oct 8 - Italy has fully met its commitments under a March oil stocks release plan coordinated by the International Energy Agency and is open to providing more once other European countries meet theirs, an Italian government official told Reuters on Thursday.

The IEA agreed on Wednesday to accelerate planned releases from emergency oil reserves and prioritise diesel supplies as governments seek to ease soaring prices triggered by shortages stemming from war in Iran and Ukraine.

Rome's pledge in March was for 10 million barrels and IEA data shows that involved oil products only drawn from industry stocks. 

According to JPMorgan, Europe still has around 40 million barrels left to release of 108 million barrels pledged.

France on Wednesday announced a 10-million-barrel release from its emergency diesel reserves. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said it would take about a year to replenish the stocks and that the release would cover about 20% of the country's diesel consumption of 54 million barrels over a three-month period.

(Reporting by Giussepe Fonte in Rome, Dominique Patton in Paris and Kate Abnett in Brussels; writing by Ahmad Ghaddar in London; editing by Jason Neely)