Biden announces release of 15 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Delivering remarks at the White House on Wednesday, President Biden announced that the administration will release an additional 15 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to reduce gas prices.
Video Transcript
JOE BIDEN: The Department of Energy will release another 15 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, extending our previously announced release through the month of December. Independent analysis-- excuse me, independent analysts have confirmed that drawdowns from the reserves so far have played a big role in bringing down oil prices, bringing them down. So we're going to continue to responsibly use that national asset.
Right now, the Strategic Petroleum-- Strategic Petroleum Reserve is more than half-full with about 400 million barrels of oil. That's more than enough for any emergency drawdown. With my announcement today, we're going to continue to stabilize markets and decrease the prices at a time when the actions of other countries have caused such volatility.
And I've told my team behind me here to be prepared to look further-- look for further releases in the months ahead if needed. We're calling it a ready and release plan. This allows us to move quickly to prevent oil price spikes and respond to international events.
