The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made a surprise Sunday announcement that its oil-rich member states would reduce production by more than one million barrels of oil per day through the end of 2023.
Essentially overnight, the price of crude oil surged more than six percent following OPEC's announcement — and it's another blow to President Biden's attempts to keep gas prices low as inflation continues to rage and the busy summer travel season is likely to drive demand and prices higher again.
BREAKING: The price of crude oil is up 7% after OPEC cuts production
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) April 2, 2023
Here we go again pic.twitter.com/XI3qUyS7X8
As Townhall reported in the summer of 2021, President Biden asked OPEC to increase production to aid the world's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, however, in one of many embarrassments for Biden on the world stage, OPEC responded to Biden's request saying markets "do not need more oil."
Little more than one year later, Biden again went — hat in hand — begging OPEC to abandon its fall 2022 plans to cut production by roughly one million barrels per day. As Townhall reported again, OPEC not only disregarded Biden's pleading, they doubled the production cut to reduce output by two million barrels of oil per day.
The second Biden snub came after gas prices in the United States — for both unleaded and diesel — reached their all-time highs in June of 2022.
This all, of course, comes as a direct result of President Biden and his administration's crusade to "end fossil fuels" and force an energy "transition" that to supposedly "green" sources that are unreliable, expensive, and often rely on exploiting child and forced labor in foreign countries for production.
Biden has scrambled to artificially lower gas prices in the United States by drawing massive amounts of oil from America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for an "emergency" of his own creation.
Within the past few hours, multiple OPEC nations have announced oil production cuts, total is over 1 million bpd.
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) April 2, 2023
Russia has also announced 500,000 bpd cut.
Biden has already sold about half of our emergency oil supply reserve. He can’t counter this situation.
As of March 31, the SPR held 371.2 million barrels. When Biden took office in January, the SPR had 638.1 million barrels. That means that, as a direct result of the Biden administration's actions, America's strategic stockpile of oil is at its lowest level since the week of November 25, 1983.
How much more oil will Biden tap from the SPR? Well, he's running out of oil and options other than undoing his administration's war on domestic energy. And OPEC keeps undermining Biden's last-ditch efforts to bring gas prices down — after OPEC nations used the power Biden gave them by killing American energy independence — and prices have already started climbing upward in the last month.
In recent days, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded is rising closer to the spikes seen last summer. According to AAA's gas price tracker, the current national average is $3.506 per gallon. That's nearly seven cents higher than last week's $3.439, up twelve cents over last month's $3.390, and currently 69 cents below last year's $4.192.
With OPEC cutting even more production, the decreased supply will likely collide with increased demand just as Americans hit the roads the summer — setting the stage for another surge toward record-high prices just as Biden is frantically trying to rebrand himself and his administration as delivering results and enjoying success.