Washington Examiner reports, as the administration attempts to stabilize markets and ease gas prices for consumers, President Biden will announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Wednesday.
In March, the Biden administration announced a 180 million-barrel drawdown from the country’s emergency stockpile – the largest and fastest release since 1971.
As of Oct. 14, the reserve stood at 405.1 million barrels or 57% of our maximum storage capacity of 714 million barrels. Now he wants to drain it even further rather than source oil from domestic suppliers.
Biden’s announcement will serve as a bridge to extend SPR releases through December, White House officials told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s announcement. Around 165 million barrels have been delivered or contracted since those drawdowns began in May.
According to AAA, US gas prices stood at $3.87 on Tuesday, up from $3.67 last month, though still well below their all-time high of more than $5 a gallon in June.
Due to refining constraints and volatility associated with OPEC+’s recent production cut announcement, administration officials are considering additional sales from emergency crude oil reserves.
This all comes after we reported that a panel of OPEC+ energy ministers agreed to make a historically large cut in oil production by cutting production by two million barrels per day.
