WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS RELEASE OF A RECORD 1 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL

Thu 31 March 2022:

President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday the release of a record million barrels of oil a day for about 180 days from US strategic stockpiles, in an attempt to dampen soaring prices.

“The president will announce the largest release of oil reserves in history, putting one million additional barrels on the market per day on average – every day – for the next six months,” the White House said in a statement, confirming earlier reports.

“This record release will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up.”

The move could free up as much as 180 million barrels of oil, the largest release of U.S. reserves in history, with the first barrels coming on the market in May. The U.S. consumes more than 7 billion barrels of oil a year.

Biden plans to urge Congress in remarks Thursday from the White House to make oil companies pay fees on wells from federal land leases that they aren’t using, accusing the companies of “hoarding without producing.”

“Companies that continue to sit on nonproducing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre,” the White House is proposing.

The administration has said oil companies are choosing not to drill for more oil and returning profits to shareholders instead. The oil industry has said it isn’t actively producing oil on all of its federal land leases because projects can take years to develop and some land ends up not being viable to drill on.

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