U.S. announces the release of 50 million barrels of strategic oil reserves to stabilize oil prices

China News Service, Washington, November 23.
With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, US President Biden announced on the 23rd that the United States will release 50 million barrels of strategic oil reserves to reduce oil prices and solve the problem of energy supply and demand mismatch in the United States
.


According to data from the US Department of Energy, on the 22nd, the average price of gasoline per gallon in the United States was US$3.
395, an increase of US$1.
293 from a year ago
.


The White House said in a statement that day that although the disposable income of American households has increased with the economic recovery, consumers still feel the pressure of rising gas and heating costs, and American companies have also been affected
.
The Biden government will adopt all available policy tools to reduce oil prices and solve the problem of insufficient energy supply
.


The White House stated that the U.
S.
Department of Energy will release its strategic oil reserves in two ways, of which 32 million barrels of oil will be traded in the next few months and returned to the strategic reserve inventory in a few years
.
The 18 million barrels of oil previously approved by Congress will accelerate sales
.


  According to data from the American Automobile Association, 48.
3 million Americans are expected to travel by car during the Thanksgiving holiday this year
.
This figure is 8% higher than the same period last year, but still lower than the level before the epidemic
.


  The Washington Post quoted analysts as saying that the political implications of the Biden administration’s move outweigh the actual effect
.
The scale of the strategic oil reserves released by it is not large enough to have a substantial impact on global and domestic oil prices
.


  The United States established a strategic oil reserve system in 1975, and the legislation authorizes the president to release oil reserves in the event of a "serious interruption in energy supply
.
" According to data from the US Department of Energy, as of November 19, the US’s strategic oil reserves were 604.
5 million barrels
.


  In early September of this year, the United States released its strategic oil reserve (1.
5 million barrels) for the first time in four years in response to the energy supply shortage caused by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and other regions
.