U.S. Allies Agree to Release of 120 Million Barrels of Global Strategic Reserves – Amid rising gas prices and sanctions against the import of Russian oil and gas to the United States and some European countries, U.S. allies have announced the release of a further 120 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves. The measure is similar to one announced by U.S. President Joe Biden last week which will see 180 million barrels of oil released from U.S. reserves over the next several months.
International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol confirmed on Wednesday that more details about the plan will be made public soon, but that 120 million barrels would be released soon, 60 million of which will be contributed by the United States.
“The @IEA is moving ahead with a collective oil stock release of 120 million barrels (including 60 million barrels contributed by the US as part of its overall draw from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve),” Birol wrote.
In an interview with CNN, U.S. Presidential Coordinator for Global Energy Security Amos Hochstein said that the Biden White House has been “very clear” that there are “going to be costs” to the war initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We can’t mitigate all the costs, but what we’re doing is working together as an international community to do as much as we can to mitigate,” he said.
What is Biden’s Long-Term Plan to Replace Russian Oil?
White House officials argued before the oil sanctions on Russia that such a decision would have more of an impact on the United States than it would Russia. That has turned out to be true.
The United States only makes up 1% of Russia’s oil product exports, while European, Asian, and Oceanic countries make up the vast majority of exports. On the flip side, the United States imports 8% of its oil from Russia, meaning that President Joe Biden will need to find alternative sources of oil to avoid scarcity.
In March, 1945 reported on the International Energy Agency’s warning in 2018 that U.S. shale oil producers would need to increase production to the same quantity of oil imported from Russia by 2025 to stave off a global shortage. That increase in production has not happened, and the Biden administration is now facing a very real problem – not just in that the United States isn’t producing enough oil domestically, but also because there is no clear alternative to Russian oil at this stage.
Other than brief discussions with Venezuela about the possibility of importing oil from the country, no clear plan on how to replace Russian oil has been presented by the White House to the media.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
