<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1667525257190,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017e-cb38-dcae-a3fe-ff7ddb630000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1667525257190,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017e-cb38-dcae-a3fe-ff7ddb630000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_65002258", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1111685"} }); ","_id":"00000184-4040-da74-a1bd-4ad022ae0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe Department of Energy said Thursday that it has sold 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, selling off the final tranche of oil from the 180 million-barrel drawdown ordered by President Joe Biden in March.
DOE said in a statement Thursday that the contracts were awarded to Phillips, Marathon, Shell, Valero, Macquarie, and Equinor.
Deliveries are slated to begin Dec. 1 and last through the remainder of the month.
News of the final SPR sale comes nine months after Biden first announced the release of 180 million barrels of oil from the U.S. emergency stockpile — the largest and fastest drawdown since the stockpile’s creation in the 1970s.
The move was intended to provide U.S. consumers relief from soaring gas prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Those releases did put some downward pressure on gas prices — at least in the short term.
A Treasury analysis published in July estimated that the 180 million-barrel SPR sale, coupled with a 60 million-barrel release by International Energy Agency members, did reduce gas prices by roughly 38 cents per gallon.
But the sales have also depleted the SPR down to its lowest point in four decades.
When the drawdowns were first announced, the United States had around 575 million barrels of oil stored in its underground reserves, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
Now, the stockpile has dwindled to just over 400 million barrels.
That has prompted concern from some analysts, who fear the low inventory could leave the U.S. vulnerable and resource-strapped at a time of an actual supply emergency, such as a natural disaster or major military conflict.
“The SPR release is not a long-term energy security strategy,” Karen Young, a senior research fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said in a recent interview.
THE LIMITS — AND POSSIBILITIES — BIDEN FACES IN ORDERING MORE SPR RELEASES
The administration is legally obligated to replace the oil it sells, and last month, Biden did release details of his buyback plan.
Under that plan, DOE will begin purchasing oil to refill the stockpile when oil prices are around $70 per barrel — a price officials say will allow companies to profit while also remaining a good deal for taxpayers.
Still, Biden has been plagued by volatile fuel prices for much of his tenure.
Last month, administration officials said they were weighing even more SPR releases due to refining constraints and OPEC+ production cuts that have sent prices even higher.
“The price of gas is still too high, and we need to keep working to bring it down,” Biden said last month.
But concerns about additional releases, and refilling the stockpile afterward, remain.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“At some point, that reserve must be refilled, and we will pay to do so at a high price,” Young said. “Trying to manipulate prices of refined fuel prices with releases of crude oil for an election cycle is not an energy policy.”
