Biden Releasing 10 Million More Barrels of Oil From US Strategic Petroleum Reserve After OPEC+ Cut

Jack PhillipsOctober 6, 2022

President Joe Biden’s administration will release 10 million more barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve following an Oct. 5 OPEC+ announcement that the cartel will slash oil production.

That decision was announced hours after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (OPEC+) confirmed it would cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day. The cut marks a setback for Biden, who visited Saudi Arabia in July to push the kingdom into increasing production amid historically high U.S. gas prices.

Cuts to production are expected to drive the price of a barrel of oil—and gas prices—worldwide, including in the United States. OPEC+’s production cuts are based on existing baseline figures, which means the cuts would be less deep because OPEC+ fell about 3.6 million barrels per day short of its output target in August.

Release

Starting in March, the Biden administration said it would start releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an institution that was set up in the 1970s amid oil embargos, in a bid to keep gas prices low. The release of some 180 million barrels of oil from the U.S. petroleum reserves this year is expected to end by Oct. 31.

But in the Oct. 5 announcement from the White House, that plan appears to have been scrapped. National security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said in the statement that, per a directive from Biden, the “Department of Energy will deliver another 10 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the market next month.”

“The President will continue to direct [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] releases as appropriate to protect American consumers and promote energy security,” they stated. “He is directing the Secretary of Energy to explore any additional responsible actions to continue increasing domestic production in the immediate term.”

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