Biden administration plans to buy 2.7M oil barrels to refill emergency stockpile
foxbusiness.comGoldman Sachs Head of Oil Research Daan Struyven provides insight on the refinery sector on 'The Claman Countdown.'
The Biden administration plans to buy 2.7 million barrels of oil to help replenish the nation's much-depleted emergency stockpile.
The planned purchase for the oil is at an average price of $79 per barrel, the Department of Energy said in a statement on Friday.
Biden sold off more than 40% of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last year to help lower gas prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In total, the White House tapped the reserve four times last year, including when Biden ordered a record-setting 180 million barrels of oil released from the reserve.
The repeated withdrawals left the stockpile at the lowest level since the 1980s, prompting accusations from Republicans that Biden had left the U.S. vulnerable to potential energy threats.
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The reserve had 351 million barrels in the week ended November 24, still near the lowest level since 1984, according to the latest Department of Energy data. That is down from about 630 million barrels at the beginning of 2020.
The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, November 22, 2019. (REUTERS/Angus Mordant//File Photo / Reuters Photos)
Established after a 1973-74 oil embargo by Arab members of OPEC, the reserve has been used in several emergencies, including in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and destroyed swaths of the Gulf of Mexico oil infrastructure. At the time, the Bush administration authorized the release of 20.8 million barrels of crude oil to U.S. producers.
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