Oklahoma’s U.S. House and Senate members who unloaded heavy criticism on President Biden for his 2022 use of the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices no doubt had more criticism over the administration’s latest delay in refiling the Reserve.
After announcing in March it intended to acquire 3 million barrels of oil for the Bayou Choctaw site in Louisiana, one of four major storage facilities for the SPR, the administration this past week said it would delay the purpchases because of increasing oil prices.
Crude oil hit $90 in global trading on Thursday and the Biden administration put the brakes to its intentions to refill the SPR in August and September.
When the President announced his plan to lower gas prices that spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his administration withdrew a record 180 million barrels. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced last month that the strategic oil reserve would be refilled by the end of the year.
There are about 363 million barrels in the reserve and that’s down from nearly 600 million barrels at the start of 2022.
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