President Joe Biden will announce this Thursday (31) the release of one million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of the United States for the next six months, the biggest release of all time, to try to reduce the gasoline prices, the White House said.
As gasoline prices have soared in recent months, particularly after Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Biden will also ask for help from US oil companies to drill more and give electric vehicle battery makers a boost.
The barrels will start flowing into the market from May, a senior government official told reporters.
Biden is expected to make the announcement at the event at 2:30 pm ET at the White House.
“After consulting with allies and partners, the president will announce the largest release of oil reserves in history, putting an additional one million barrels on the market per day on average – every day – for the next six months,” the White House said.
The release “will serve as a bridge until the end of the year, when domestic production increases,” he said.
Additional oil releases from International Energy Agency (IEA) allies will push the total volume of oil from stockpiles for global markets to well over 1 million barrels a day, the official said.
The IEA, the world’s energy watchdog of which the United States is a member, may also decide to release barrels when the IEA countries meet on Friday.
The 31-member IEA, representing industrialized nations but not Russia, presided over the fourth coordinated oil release in its history on March 1 of more than 60 million barrels of oil – the largest yet.
LCOc1 CLc1 oil prices are down about 5% on the latest US withdrawal news, while OPEC+, a production group that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, has maintained a modest agreement to slowly increase production.
Biden will also invoke the Defense Production Act to support the production and processing of minerals and materials used in large-capacity batteries used in electric vehicles — such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese, the White House said.
He will also ask Congress to approve his plan to move the country toward clean energy policies.
use it or lose it
The Biden administration has long said that energy companies are sitting on thousands of unused concessions and are slow to turn on the faucet.
Biden will call for a “use it or lose it” policy that will try to pressure oil companies to take advantage of unused oil lease permits, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We think there should be consequences if you are on approved licenses not used for production on federal lands,” the official said. The policy would charge companies if they are sitting on wells and do not develop the concessions, the official said.
Oil companies said they like to have a deep inventory of permits to give them flexibility in planning ahead and that labor and logistical constraints can be an obstacle to using them.
Source: CNN Brasil
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