The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: strategic petroleum reserve
Biden Orders Record Strategic Oil Release To Stabilize Prices Amid War

Biden Orders Record Strategic Oil Release To Stabilize Prices Amid War

By Alexandra Alper and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Thursday launched the largest release ever from the U.S. emergency oil reserve to try to bring down gasoline prices that have soared during Russia's war with Ukraine, the White House said.

Starting in May, the United States will release 1 million barrels per day of crude oil for six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a senior administration official told reporters.

The 180 million barrels is equivalent to about two days of global demand, and marks the third time Washington has tapped the SPR in the past six months.

The release will more than cover oil exports to the United States from Russia, which typically produces about ten percent of the world's crude, but only accounts for eight percent of U.S. liquid fuel imports. Biden banned U.S. imports of Russian oil this month.

But the release will fall short of a loss of about three million barrels per day of Russian oil which the International Energy Agency estimates will be caused by Western sanctions and as global buyers avoid the oil.

Biden also called on Congress to make energy companies pay fees on wells from leases they have not used in years, for U.S. oil companies to drill more, and for boosts in production of electric vehicles and batteries.

The oil release will "serve as bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up," the White House said.

The Biden administration has worked with allies in the IEA in recent weeks to coordinate releases which will bring the total volume to global markets to well over 1 million barrels per day, the official said.

The 31-member IEA, the world's energy watchdog, may announce a release when the member states meet on Friday. The group, representing industrialized nations including the United States, but not Russia, presided over the fourth coordinated oil release in its history on March 1 of over 60 million barrels of crude – its largest yet. The U.S. portion of that release was about half of the total.

Oil prices plunged about five percent on the news of the latest U.S. reserve draws while OPEC+, a production group including Saudi Arabia and Russia, stuck to a modest deal to slowly ramp up output. [O/R]

'Use It Or Lose It'

The Biden administration has long said that energy companies are sitting on thousands of unused leases and are slow to open the spigot. Biden will call for a "use it or lose it" policy that will seek to push oil companies to take advantage of unused oil leasing permits, a senior administration official told reporters.

"We do think there should be consequences if you're sitting on unused approved permits for production on federal lands," the official said. The policy would charge companies if they are sitting on wells and not developing leases, the official said.

Oil companies have said they like to have a deep inventory of permits to give them flexibility on future planning and that labor and logistical constraints can be a headwind in using them.

Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to support the production and processing of minerals and materials used for large capacity batteries used in electric vehicles - such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese, the White House said. He also urged Congress to pass his plan to move the country toward clean energy policies.

(Reporting By Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Steve Holland; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Biden Acts To Relieve Oil Hikes -- And Trump Responds With Brazen Lies

Biden Acts To Relieve Oil Hikes -- And Trump Responds With Brazen Lies

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet

Donald Trump, the disgraced, former president who is reportedly planning a third campaign, on Tuesday released an exceptionally false statement criticizing President Joe Biden for taking action to combat increasing gas and home heating oil prices.

President Biden Tuesday morning announced he has authorized 50 million barrels of oil to be sold from the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves, a move that should help lower oil and gas prices that have risen because of OPEC+ policies. Biden is making the move in conjunction with similar moves by five other countries: China, India, Japan, South Korea and the U.K.

"We expect the industry to be passing through these savings to consumers as quickly as possible," a White House official said, as The Wall Street Journalreports.

"The president stands ready to take additional action, if needed, and is prepared to use his full authorities working in coordination with the rest of the world to maintain adequate supply as we exit the pandemic," the White House added.

Trump, in a statement released to the press, outright lied about Biden's move, and about his own performance and that of other U.S. Presidents.

"For decades our Country's very important Strategic Oil Reserves were low or virtually empty in that no President wanted to pay the price of filling them up. I filled them up three years ago, right to the top, when oil prices were very low. Those reserves are meant to be used for serious emergencies, like war, and nothing else," Trump falsely claimed.

As The New York Times' Peter Baker notes, the Strategic Oil Reserves (technically the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,) were far from empty when Trump took office, but they were far less full when he left:

That's not the only lie Trump told.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is authorized to hold up to 714 million barrels (in 2009 it was 727 million barrels), so they were nearly full when Trump took office. He also exposed his ignorance about how the federal government "buys" the oil. The oil is effectively traded to the government as payment (royalties) for drilling leases so presidents not wanting to "pay the price of filling them up" is false as well.

Here's a graph from the U.S. government showing how many barrels of oil are in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves, starting in 1980. At no time were they "low or virtually empty," not ever. The chart is highlighted to indicate the day Trump was sworn in to office:

The Reserves have been tapped about 20 times since they were first created in 1975, including to reduce the deficit in 1996 and 1997, in 2011 during the Arab Spring, and as loans to oil companies.

oil price

Why Trump’s Oil Deal Is Bad For Americans

For decades, American presidents and American consumers have complained when oil prices rose and rejoiced when oil prices fell. But this week, Donald Trump helped forge an agreement with Russia, Saudi Arabia and other oil production nations to raise prices by slashing production. Then he bragged about it.

"The big Oil Deal with OPEC Plus is done," he tweeted. "This will save hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in the United States. I would like to thank and congratulate President Putin of Russia and King Salman of Saudi Arabia. ... Great deal for all!"

Read NowShow less

The Administration Does Not Take Al Gore’s Complaints Seriously

President Obama announced yesterday that the United States would release 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The move is intended to lower gas prices, which have risen sharply as a result of the Libyan civil war and become an obvious source of economic pain for Americans and political pain for the Administration.

The day before Obama’s announcement, Al Gore published a long Rolling Stone essay where he complained that Obama, “failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change.”

Gore seemed most rankled that the President has “called for a massive expansion of oil drilling in the United States, apparently in an effort to defuse criticism from those who argue speciously that “drill, baby, drill” is the answer to our growing dependence on foreign oil.”

And this was before Obama’s latest decision to open the reserve, which will probably give him a small boost popular with voters, three-quarters of whom consider high gas prices to be an extremely or very serious issue according to a recent AP poll. But, like his decision during last year’s BP crisis to talk about new sources of energy without mentioning climate change, his refusal to engage with the fate of the planet has left environmentalists wanting. “The climate crisis is real,” Gore wrote. “It is time to act.”