Biden to release 15M barrels from oil reserve, more possible
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve Wednesday as part of a response to recent production cuts announced by OPEC+ nations, and he will say more oil sales are possible this winter, as his administration rushes to be seen as pulling out all the stops ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday to announce the drawdown from the strategic reserve, senior administration officials said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to outline Biden’s plans. It completes the release of 180 million barrels over six months authorized by Biden in March. That has sent the strategic reserve to its lowest level since 1984 in what the president called a “bridge” until domestic production could be increased. The reserve now contains roughly 400 million barrels of oil.
Biden will also open the door to additional releases this winter in an effort to bring prices down, but administration officials would not detail how much the president would be willing to tap and the conditions under which he would do so.
Biden will also say that the U.S. government will restock the strategic reserve when oil prices are at or lower than $67 to $72 a barrel, an offer that administration officials argue will increase domestic production by guaranteeing a baseline level of demand even if prices fall. Yet the president is also expected to renew his criticism of the profits reaped by oil companies — repeating a bet made this summer that public condemnation would matter more to these companies than shareholders’ focus on returns.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-putin-biden-climate-and-environment-government-politics-7fa1a7e4c1d2196856566f9401d8369b
= new reply since forum marked as read
We use (unrestricted) about 20 million bbls/day and with pumping ~ 12 million bbls/day, that would leave about 8 million bbls/day deficit if solely relying on ourselves.
We are currently at about 408 million bbls still in the reserve - https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_ending_stocks_of_crude_oil_in_the_strategic_petroleum_reserve
By law, they can go down to a bit less than 1/2 of that.
The issue is not so much crude oil, but gasoline and refinery capacity. We can dump oil out there but that doesn't necessarily increase the amount of available gasoline. But the move is to quiet this lovely "free market" mess that this world engages in while they get other sources of oil (like Venezuela) back into the global market.
But note that if you have all the prognosticators claiming that we are "headed for a recession" then oil demand is going to drop and if they keep artificially trying to jack the prices up, they will end up cutting off their noses to spite their face.
They are still trying to make up for the losses from their idiotic decision to get into a production war with Russia during the pandemic leading to this -
where they had to offer to PAY that much per bbl to store the excess!
which is why there was a link in my post to exactly what I was talking about. 
The solution to our problem is price controls, combined with corporate taxes on profits. Just putting more oil out for sale doesn't help consumers pay those exorbitant prices.
That is what happens when they "release" oil out of the reserves (they offer contracts for someone to buy what we have stored).
So assuming we tend to "fill" the reserve when the price is lower, then when we sell now, it is at a much higher price than we paid, so that should be a profit for the government that goes into the Treasury. 
Thanks for the explanation.
releasing "crude" is not going to directly help the consumer. It's for affecting the world market and "expected" global supply because that is how they work commodities like this, along with wheat and pork bellies and gold, etc.
Unless we completely go "off the world grid" and become "isolationalist", then we are stuck with these prices absent price controls (which were tried in the '70s and sadly made things worse and were thwarted - brief history here).
What is needed is more refinery capacity locally so that the oil we do have can produce more gasoline and cause those gasoline wholesalers to get up off those high prices to the retailers.
Fortunately our current President had been in the Senate (and in consultation with a past one) when all that happened in the '70s -
Then-President Jimmy Carter listening to former Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) at a fundraising reception in 1978. | AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File
There are other countries who have participated with us the past year (note the date of the Fact Sheet below regarding when this effort was first announced) -
President Biden Announces Release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve As Part of Ongoing Efforts to Lower Prices and Address Lack of Supply Around the World
| Briefing Room | Statements and Releases
Announcement is in parallel with other major energy consuming nations, including China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom
(snip)
Today, the President is announcing that the Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand exiting the pandemic and supply.
The President has been working with countries across the world to address the lack of supply as the world exits the pandemic. And, as a result of President Biden’s leadership and our diplomatic efforts, this release will be taken in parallel with other major energy consuming nations including China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom. This culminates weeks of consultations with countries around the world, and we are already seeing the effect of this work on oil prices. Over the last several weeks as reports of this work became public, oil prices are down nearly 10 percent.
The U.S. Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in two ways:
32 million barrels will be an exchange over the next several months, releasing oil that will eventually return to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the years ahead. The exchange is a tool matched to today’s specific economic environment, where markets expect future oil prices to be lower than they are today, and helps provide relief to Americans immediately and bridge to that period of expected lower oil prices. The exchange also automatically provides for re-stocking of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over time to meet future needs. 18 million barrels will be an acceleration into the next several months of a sale of oil that Congress had previously authorized.
(snip)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/23/president-biden-announces-release-from-the-strategic-petroleum-reserve-as-part-of-ongoing-efforts-to-lower-prices-and-address-lack-of-supply-around-the-world/
Earlier in the week it was falling. It goes up and down like the stock market. It has been generaly running in the $80 - $90/bbl range. It's nowhere near the high that it was earlier this year -
(below a snapshot of the past year Oct 2021 - Oct 2022 from here - https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/cl.1/charts?mod=mw_quote_tab)
And remember that when we "release" this is not the oil companies doing it. As I posted here -
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2983269
this is oil that WE (government) bought when it was cheap (mostly during 2020) and are now selling contracts for it. So the government gets the "profit".