The Department of Energy announced the release of an additional 20 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Tuesday afternoon, marking yet another desperate measure by the Biden administration to lower gas prices at the pump.
"The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) today announced an additional Notice of Sale of up to 20 million additional barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This Notice of Sale is part of President Biden’s announcement on March 31, 2022 authorizing the sale of crude oil from the SPR to address the significant market supply disruption caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine and help lower energy costs for American families," DOE released in a a statement.
"The President’s announcement called to release one million barrels of SPR crude oil per day over six months," the statement continues. "This historic release of SPR crude has provided a record amount of crude oil supply to the U.S. economy and will continue until the end of October 2022. DOE plans to release, from the SPR, up to 2.8 million barrels of sour crude oil and 17.2 million barrels of sweet crude oil, totaling 20 million barrels with deliveries from September 16 until October 21, 2022."
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Biden's strategy of releasing oil from the SPR wasn't lowing prices and instead, much of the supply was sold off to China and other countries.
"More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency oil reserves release aimed at lowering domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices touched record highs," Reuters reported. "The export of crude and fuel is blunting the impact of the moves by U.S. President Joe Biden designed to lower record pump prices."
Before today's announcement, the SPR was sitting at its lowest level since 1986. The latest release brings SPR levels down to a new, low record and the White House has no plans on refilling the it anytime soon.
DOOCY: "How much lower can we let the strategic petroleum reserves get before that becomes a problem?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 15, 2022
Kirby doesn't give a firm answer. pic.twitter.com/MfNXn5jREf