On March 31, local time, U.S. President Biden announced a plan for the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In the next six months, 1 million barrels of oil will be released per day to deal with the soaring domestic gasoline prices in the United States amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Biden said the scale and duration of the release was unprecedented.
The release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be used to fill the oil gap that emerged after the U.S. embargoed Russian oil in March this year. In addition, Biden has called on Congress to require oil and gas extraction companies to pay for their wells and public lands that are not in use, prompting the companies to use idle wells and land to increase production.
Biden expects the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce domestic gasoline prices by 10 to 35 cents a gallon, although the exact amount depends on how much oil is released by U.S. allies.
Affected by the news, WTI crude oil futures fell $7.54 on the day to close at $100.28 a barrel, the lowest closing price since March 16.
Biden authorized an unprecedented plan to release oil reserves to ease U.S. oil price gains. Click on the video to see what it is!