The United States is ready to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if necessary in order to rebalance the global energy supply in the wake of the drone attacks on major Saudi oil facilities, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday."
Conway hinted at the possibility of a meeting between President Donald Trump and the Iranian leadership on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. But she added that the chances of such a meeting happening are now in doubt due to the drone attacks.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the world's largest emergency oil supply located in Louisiana and Texas. The United States created the storage to mitigate supply disruptions.
On Saturday, two drone attacks, claimed by Houthis, caused major fires in two oil facilities: in Abqaiq in eastern Saudia Arabia and Khurais northeast of Riyadh. According to the kingdom's energy ministry, the incident affected 50 percent of Saudi Aramco's total oil production.
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rushed to blame Iran for the incident, urging public condemnations of Iran's "unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply."
Iran's Foreign Ministry rejected Pompeo's claims saying that the US had shifted towards a "maximum lie" policy after exhausting its "maximum pressure" line.