US President Joe Biden’s actions this year have resulted in a severe depletion of the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as Washington strives to manage gas prices in the country.
Last week, the US emergency oil reserves had only 416.4 million barrels, which is the lowest level since 1984, Fox Business reports, citing data provided by the US Department of Energy.
Earlier this year, the United States imposed several rounds of tough economic sanctions against Russia over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, including restrictions on Russian energy exports.
Said sanctions, however, backfired, with gas prices in the United States skyrocketing.
Seeking to lower the fuel prices, Biden ordered the release of vast quantities of oil from the US strategic reserve – some 180 million barrels over six months – with the White House announcing that it plans to release an additional ten million barrels in November.
The US government’s latest decision to tap the US oil reserve came shortly after OPEC+ declared its intent to slash oil production by two million barrels a day, a move that is likely to result in oil prices growing further.
While the current price of gas in the US, which sits at $3.86 a gallon on average, is lower than the $5.01 per gallon seen in June, it is still 29 percent higher than a year ago, Fox points out.