President Joe Biden made an effort to deliver a Thanksgiving gift for US drivers, announcing the country’s largest-ever release of oil reserves to reduce petrol prices.
- It was a surprising move for a leader who placed climate change at the center of his legislative program and campaigned “transition from the oil industry.”
- The United States stated that it would release 50m barrels from its nearly 600m-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
- The UK, India, South Korea, Japan, and China approved the release of the oil stocks. Britain plans to release nearly 1.5m barrels. India is set to release 5m barrels.
- The US amount covers nearly half a day of global oil demand of nearly 100m barrels per day. Around 32m barrels will be released between mid-December and at the end of April 2022 in a swap with oil companies.
Other effects of curbing petrol prices, including requesting Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ members to pump more oil, have fallen short.
CL1! Down -0.22%, USOIL down -0.09%
Source: FT