"White House Planning Oil Reserve Release Announcement This Week"

"The Biden administration is moving toward a release of at least another 10 million to 15 million barrels of oil from the nation’s emergency stockpile in a bid to balance markets and keep gasoline prices from climbing further, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve release would be the latest tranche of a 180-million-barrel program that began in the spring.

The Biden administration also is set this week to provide details on plans to replenish the emergency stockpile. The Energy Department announced in May it was planning a new method of buybacks to allow for a “competitive, fixed-price bid process,” with prices potentially locked in well before crude is delivered.

Separately, the administration is still weighing limits on exports of fuel to keep more gasoline and diesel inside the US, according to two of the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations. Although no timeline has been set for a decision on that potentially more dramatic step, it would not happen before November’s midterm elections, one of the people said."

Jennifer Jacobs, Ari Natter, and Jennifer A Dlouhy report for Bloomberg October 17, 2022.

Source: Bloomberg, 10/18/2022