Biden Admin Refuses To Refill Strategic Oil Reserves Because The Price Is Too High

The following report is by Bloomberg:

The Energy Department said it was “keeping the taxpayer’s interest at the forefront” in its decision not to purchase as many as 3 million barrels of oil for a Strategic Petroleum Reserve site in Louisiana. The plan for the barrels to be delivered in August and September had been announced in mid-March.

We will not award the current solicitations for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and will solicit available capacity as market conditions allow. We will continue to monitor market dynamics.

The department said.

The move follows a rally in crude prices, with US benchmark West Texas Intermediate on Tuesday breaking above $85 a barrel for the first time since October. The Biden administration has a target to buy oil at $79 or lower to refill the reserve, though spent an average of about $81 a barrel in its latest purchase of 2.8 million barrels late last month.

The Energy Department has been slowly refilling the emergency oil supply after it reached a 40-year-low following the administration’s unprecedented drawdown of a record 180 million barrels in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It currently holds about 363 million barrels, according to Energy Department data, down from almost 600 million at the start of 2022.