US President Joe Biden announced the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserve, according to the White House. Together with Washington, this decision was made by other energy consuming countries, including China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom.
"The Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic oil reserve to lower prices for Americans and close the mismatch between the demand and supply caused by the pandemic," the White House website said.
Biden's possible statement about the release of some oil from the US strategic oil reserve was previously reported by Bloomberg. White House spokesman Jen Psaki said earlier that the Biden administration will urge OPEC to increase production regardless of whether it uses a strategic oil reserve.
"The release will be carried out in parallel with other major energy consuming countries, including China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the UK," added the White House.
Earlier, leading producers from OPEC + rejected Biden's initiative to increase production above the previously agreed 400,000 barrels per day per month to combat record high gasoline prices in the United States.
At the same time, Bloomberg sources also reported that the OPEC + countries may change the parameters of their agreement to restore oil production if one of the major importers launches a sale of strategic oil reserves. The interlocutors of the publication indicated that this could happen already on December 2, when the next meeting of the ministers of the OPEC + countries will take place. At the November meeting, members of the organization agreed not to accelerate the increase in oil production and not to deviate from the previous plan to increase monthly production by 400,000 barrels per day.