• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 2 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 1 day How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs

U.S. Could Release Even more Oil From Strategic Stockpiles

The United States will reassess additional releases of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserves, White House Envoy Hochstein said on Wednesday, as the Administration struggles to rein in high prices at the pump.

The Administration has already vowed to release a million barrels of crude oil from the stockpiles every day into the commercial markets. The plan, anounced at the end of March, was to ultimately release 180 million barrels over a six-month period. The plan has so far depleted the nation's emergency crude oil stockpiles 67 million barrels to 497.9 million barrels as of June 24, according to the Energy Information Administration's latest data released today—the lowest level since 1986.

With more than 100 million barrels yet to be released under the existing plan, the nation's stockpiles would be less than 397 million barrels. On June 14, the Department of Energy announced that it would sell 45 million barrels of oil out of the SPR, with deliveries expected to take place between August 16 and September 30.

Releasing even more come October could send the SPR to levels not seen—ever.

While there are a bit less than a million barrels a day heading out of the SPR and into commercial storage, the price of a WTI barrel has continued higher, and is now more than $10 higher than when the release was first announced.

Gasoline prices have risen from $4.231 per gallon on March 28—days before the announcement of the release—to $5.006 per gallon as of June 13, according to the latest information provided by the EIA. AAA pegs the average gasoline price at $4.868 per gallon as of June 29—lower than last week but still higher than before the announced SPR release.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment
  • Mamdouh Salameh on June 29 2022 said:
    The global oil market is in the grip of two powerful and highly bullish factors, namely a fast-shrinking global oil spare production capacity including OPEC+’s and a robust global oil demand.

    Therefore, even if the United States released the entire Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), the impact on prices will still be very limited since the market knows that it takes a minimum of five years and global investments of at least $3.0 trillion over that period to expand global production capacity. Moreover, the United States will have to eventually replace them at higher prices.

    Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
    International Oil Economist
    Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News