White House taps Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The US will offer to loan energy producers up to 40 million barrels of oil.
The White House has announced plans to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to address rising gas prices ahead of the midterm elections. The United States will offer to loan up to 40 million barrels of oil to energy producers, which is the remaining amount of a 172 million-barrel commitment made in March. In addition, the White House is urging the European Union to draw down emergency diesel inventories to help lower global prices.
However, energy analyst Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy believes that neither approach will significantly impact prices. A similar offer to tap reserves in June resulted in only half a million barrels being awarded. De Haan attributes the high prices to constrained refinery capacity rather than limited oil supply, suggesting that meaningful relief would require addressing geopolitical tensions.
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