Biden Administration to Sell 20 Million More Barrels of Oil From Strategic Petroleum Reserve

This makes the fifth sale. Reuters: The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will sell an additional 20 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a previous plan to tap the facility to calm oil prices boosted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as demand recovers from the pandemic. The United States has already sold 125 million barrels from the reserve with nearly 70 million barrels already delivered to purchasers, a senior administration official told reporters. The SPR releases have been a “supply lifeline” to oil and refining companies as the industry continues to get oil production back online after declines during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the official said (Reuters). 

Fox News: While gas prices are down significantly since a recent national average price of more than $5 per gallon in June, the average as of Tuesday was still $4.327, compared to $3.156 from one year ago, and approximately $2.39 when Biden first took office in January 2021. Republicans slammed the White House after previous sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves after it was made known that millions of barrels were being sent to European and Asian countries, including China. The White House also announced that the Department of Energy is proposing a rule change regarding how the federal government acquires oil for the strategic reserve. The new rule, if adopted, would permit fixed-price contracts as well as index-price contracts. The current rule requires purchase prices to be set by a price index, with the price paid being based on market prices at the time of delivery (Fox News).