On Tuesday, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that the country’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) is a tool available to Washington to address unusual short-term mismatches between oil supply and demand as the Biden administration looks to shift to less volatile energy sources.
"We have the authority inherent in the statute to be able to do these exchanges, and sales as well, in a thoughtful and methodical way," Granholm said.
She opined that the US does not control the price of oil and the administration's long-term goal is to move off oil.
"Ultimately, short-term the solution is to increase that supply, so that it meets demand, and long term to be able to invest in clean energy so that we are not so reliant on volatile sources," she underlined.
However, Granholm added that the SPR is not something that will be used on a daily basis. It is only used at an extremely unusual moment when prices were high and people were beginning to travel more as the coronavirus pandemic waned.
The US coordinated simultaneous SPR releases with some of the world’s biggest oil consumers after failing to convince top oil producers to produce more oil to meet demand as the world recovers from the pandemic.
US President Joe Biden announced last week the plan to release 50 million barrels of oil from the SPR with 32 million barrels of the release will be in the form of a loan that oil companies will repay back to the stockpile.
The remainder will be offered in an acceleration of sales that had already been approved by Congress.
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Published on December 2, 2021 12:25 PM (GMT+8)Last Updated on December 2, 2021 12:25 PM (GMT+8)
