The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is intended to protect the country’s access to oil in cases of natural disasters or national security issues, sits in salt dome caverns along the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana.
The administration is reportedly considering extending the release for as long as six months, with a potential limit of 180m barrels drawn from the current national reserve of 568m barrels.
The possible injection into the market of oil reserves, first reported by Bloomberg, comes as the Biden administration is wrestling with the political fallout of high petrol prices and rising inflation. According to the American Automobile Association, the US average now stands at $4.23 a gallon, up from $2.87 a year ago.
Extraordinary measures including gas rebates are being considered by California, the worst-hit state, where an average gallon of petrol now costs close to $6.
Biden’s plan called not just for immediately increasing supply, but also for increasing domestic production. In a statement, the White House said the oil and gas industry is sitting on more than 12m acres of non-producing federal land with 9,000 unused but already-approved permits for production. It said Biden would call on Congress to make oil companies pay fees on unused wells and land.
Best of Government
Loading...