Biden to Fight High Oil Prices by Releasing 50 Million Barrels From Reserve

The White House announced today that it is releasing 50 million barrels from its strategic supplies in an bid to reduce sky high oil prices and ease the pressure on supply. 

Oil prices moved up after the news was announced and are hovering around $80 a barrel. Last month, oil prices topped out at 7-year highs. It's a huge rebound for a commodity where demand dried up almost overnight during during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve has a stockpile of more than 600 million barrels of crude. The reserve ensures supply during natural disasters or other national security events.

US President Joe Biden is coordinating the release with other major energy consuming nations including China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom. 

The move comes after OPEC - a consortium of oil producing nations that includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela - cut production when demand collapsed in the depth of the Covid-19 pandemic. OPEC nations have been cautiously increasing supply as the economic recovery continues but the US wants them to move faster in the wake of recent prices rises.