Article

2022-12-18 Economy

US buying 3 mln barrels of oil to start replenishing reserves

[AlAhram] The Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft

...the collection of boodlers, grifters, hangers-on, and self-proclaimed experts affiliated with the Biden Crime Family. Entrusted with an entire nation as the result of a suspicious election, they set about happily implementing stuff they absorbed in college, all of which blew up and splattered the rest of us...
said Friday it is buying 3 million barrels of oil to begin to replenish U.S. strategic reserves that officials drained earlier this year in a bid to stop gasoline prices from rising amid production cuts by OPEC and a ban on Russian oil imports.

President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. The very model of probity, except maybe for abandoning Afghanistan...
withdrew 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve starting in March, bringing the stockpile to its lowest level since the 1980s. The purchase, to begin in January, will start to replenish the reserve and is likely to be followed by additional purchases, officials said.

The Energy Department called the purchase ``a good deal for American taxpayers'' since the price will be lower than the $96 per barrel average the U.S. oil was sold for. The replenishment also will strengthen U.S. energy security, the department said in a statement.

The purchase price was not announced, but benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil was selling at $74.50 per barrel late Friday.

Gasoline prices, meanwhile, averaged about $3.18 per gallon on Friday, down from $3.74 a month ago and just over $5 per gallon at their peak in June, according to the AAA auto club.

Tapping the reserve is among the few things a president can do by himself to try to control the inflation that makes Americans poorer and often creates a political liability for the party in control of the White House.

Global oil prices were rising even before Russia invaded Ukraine last February. When Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports in early March, he acknowledged it would come at a cost to American consumers.

The administration completed the release of 180 million barrels in October. The reserve now contains roughly 400 million barrels of oil, down from more than 600 million in late 2021, according to the Energy Department.

The reserve was created after the 1970s Arab oil embargo to give the United States a supply that could be used in an emergency.

Contracts for the purchase will be awarded by Jan. 13, with deliveries to an SPR site in Texas expected in February.

Didn’t President Trump top it off last time when oil prices were half they are now, mostly from American suppliers? This time the cost will be higher, and more of what we buy will come from foreign suppliers like OPEC and Venezuela. So when it’s sold next time, the profit to the federal treasury will be considerably smaller. Way to support those who privately deem themselves America’s enemies, Joe!

Posted by trailing wife 2022-12-18 01:05|| || Front Page|| [9 views ] Top

#1 Forbes wrote: President Trump did propose to top off the SPR when the Covid-19 pandemic was crushing oil demand. In March 2020 President Trump directed the Department of Energy to “fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to its maximum capacity by purchasing 77 million barrels of American-made crude oil.” ... However, 1). The directive was never carried out; and 2). The SPR was already within 13% of its highest-ever level when that directive was issued.

Posted by Slavising Unineting5672 2022-12-18 07:49|| 2022-12-18 07:49|| Front Page Top

#2 The directive was never carried out

A bureaucracy that defies the Executive should be fired. Immediately. Hope President DeSantis gets that.

Posted by Frank G 2022-12-18 07:54|| 2022-12-18 07:54|| Front Page Top

#3 I am SO reminded of the $.5M sales of Hunter's 'artwork' as a scheme to wash payments. I wonder if the Burisma Group will be brokering oil sales through it's many shells.

Posted by Skidmark 2022-12-18 07:56|| 2022-12-18 07:56|| Front Page Top

#4 Skid, if they're buying oil from Venezuela they're more or less buying it direct from Lukoil, Rosneft, and Sinopac. They don't need a Ukrainian intermediary (which they more or less control as an additional step).

It's a very thin veneer over writing a check directly to Putin.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2022-12-18 12:36|| 2022-12-18 12:36|| Front Page Top

#5 /\ The unprincipled thieves that rule this land are masters of the 'thin veneer.'

Posted by Besoeker 2022-12-18 13:05|| 2022-12-18 13:05|| Front Page Top

#6 As I recall, Schumer & the gang shut down DJT's 'top off' initiative in 2020, when oil was at ~$24/bbl (similar to 1999/2000).

The SPR was already within 13% of its highest-ever level when that directive was issued.

But that's misleading as we could have actually filled it beyond the '13% of its highest-ever level'.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2022-12-18 15:14|| 2022-12-18 15:14|| Front Page Top

#7 I have an idea: do the replenishment in the dead of winter to create an artificial demand at the refinery level. Nobody uses oil in the winter for anything anyway.

Posted by Super Hose 2022-12-18 19:19|| 2022-12-18 19:19|| Front Page Top

#8 Nobody uses oil in the winter for anything anyway.

"We just turn our NEST thermostat to the heat temp we want and it heats up. Mostly. Lately we get an error message. F*ck it's cold"

Posted by Frank G 2022-12-18 20:50|| 2022-12-18 20:50|| Front Page Top

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