Almost four months after President Joe Biden's initial release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), gas prices remain high. As of July, Biden is selling this oil to foreign countries, further draining the country's trove of emergency crude oil.
"U.S. oil from our strategic petroleum reserves is being sold to China while our gas prices remain high," U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Montana) tweeted. "This administration is running our country into the ground while Joe Biden is selling off our nation's critical resources for his family's gain. #QuidProJoe."
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 14 companies have been awarded contracts to receive the millions of barrels of oil being drawn from the SPR. Crude oil deliveries are said to occur between Aug. 16 and Sept. 30 of this year and are part of Biden's March 31 announcement to release oil to address global supply disruption and stabilize energy costs.
The SPR, which contains the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil, was established "primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program,” the Energy Department said.
According to DOE, Biden has authorized the sale of American oil from the SPR to several foreign-owned firms, including: Unipec America, Inc. (0.950 million barrels of oil), a wholly owned subsidiary of the China International United Petroleum and Chemical Company, Ltd.; Motiva Enterprises, LLC (4.20 million barrels of oil), a fully owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco; Glencore (0.575 million barrels), an Anglo-Swiss company; and Vitol Inc. (1 million barrels), a Dutch company.
In July 2021, the SPR stood at 621.3 million barrels of oil. Between July 2021 and July 2022, the total stock of oil in the SPR has been reduced by 21.91%.
On March 31, Biden announced the release up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's SPR over a six-month period, in his effort to curb high gas prices. The president said there would be a slight delay in declining gas prices by days and weeks, but the prices would eventually drop by an unknown range.
On Wednesday, the Gasoline Misery Index, which tracks how much more (or less) the average American consumer will have to spend on gasoline on an annualized basis, reports that the average Arizona resident is spending around $846 more on gas this year when compared to the same time a year ago.