(Bloomberg) -- China is releasing some oil from its strategic reserves days after the U.S. invited it to participate in a joint sale.

“The bureau is carrying out crude oil release work at the moment,” said a spokeswoman at the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration via phone. It’s unclear if Chinese authorities are doing so in response to Washington’s invitation, or whether they had prior plans to do so. The news was first reported by Reuters.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping had discussed the merits of releasing oil from strategic reserves during their virtual summit this week. The move is aimed at ensuring stability in global energy markets after crude prices reached a multi-year high last month. Washington has been lobbying Asian nations including China, India, Japan and South Korea to join its efforts to increase supply after requests for more barrels were turned down by OPEC+ producers.

No decision was made during the summit, although both sides agreed to continue discussions about the state of oil markets and a possible coordinated response, officials said.

Beijing and Washington currently share similar concerns over the high prices of oil and fuels, inflation, as well as the impact of rising costs on the recovery of their economies. 

China tapped its national stockpiles this year in an effort to bring domestic crude oil prices down. In September, the reserve bureau held its inaugural public auction where it offered 7.4 million barrels, or the equivalent of less than a day’s worth of China’s imports. The country also made a private sale from its reserves prior to the auction.  

“We will release more details on the volume of oil and date of its sale on our website in due time, just like we did in the first public auction”, said the reserve bureau’s spokeswoman. 

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