December 01, 2021 18:49 PM
U.S. Secretary of Energy Granholm
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Reuters on Tuesday that the US emergency oil reserve is a tool that the government can use to address unusual short-term mismatches in oil supply and demand because the Biden administration wants to switch to less volatile energy sources.
“It’s nice to know that it can be used for these purposes,” Granholm said in an extensive interview at Reuters’ North American Energy Transition 2021 event to be broadcast next week.
U.S. President Biden announced last week that the United States will release 50 million barrels of strategic oil reserves. This is the first time in 20 years that the president has used reserves instead of addressing interruptions to curb oil prices.
About 32 million barrels will be released in the form of borrowing. In the future, oil companies will need to repay the reserves, and the rest will be supplied through accelerated sales approved by Congress.
Granholm said that the United States does not control oil prices and the government’s long-term goal is to get rid of oil.
Granholm said: “Ultimately, the short-term solution will be to increase supply to meet demand, while the long-term solution is to be able to invest in clean energy and make us less dependent on unstable energy.”
Biden’s energy security envoy, Amos Hochstein, told CNBC on Monday that the government is ready to release more strategic oil reserves, especially borrowing reserves means that most of the crude oil released will be replenished.
“Of course, this is a tool that we can use and will use it again,” Hochstein told CNBC in Dubai.
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