Japan will stop releasing oil reserves by private-sector oil companies on Jan. 4, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai said Tuesday.

The coordinated oil release by members of the International Energy Agency began four months ago as an effort to stabilize prices after a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico hurt production.

"The impact of hurricane damage on the global oil market has been mitigated and the IEA has announced the end of the joint oil stock release. Therefore, we find it appropriate to terminate Japan's oil release on Jan. 4," Nikai said at a news conference.

The Paris-based IEA said Monday the emergency release of oil stockpiles held by its 26 member countries following hurricane damage to U.S. oil production facilities concluded successfully last Thursday.

On Sept. 2, the IEA members agreed to release a combined 60 million barrels from their strategic oil reserves after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged oil production facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Under the joint action, Japan has since Sept. 7 lowered its normal 70-day minimum stockpile levels among 66 private-sector oil companies to 67 days to help increase supplies and stabilize the global oil market.

Japan was asked to handle 12.2 percent, or 7.32 million barrels, of the IEA's stockpile release. For the 30-day period through Oct. 6, the country's private oil companies released about 10 million barrels of oil, surpassing the target.

Japan subsequently extended the oil release period three times to ensure stability in the market. The current release period will expire Jan. 4.

The IEA said Monday nearly all of the 60 million barrels were provided to the market through stockpiles and increased domestic production.