| US President Joe Biden speaks to the public at the White House in Washington on the 31st (local time), announcing that he will release 1 million barrels a day of strategic oil to stabilize oil prices. © AFP=News1 © News1 Reporter Dongmyeong Woo |
US President Joe Biden announced on the 1st (local time) that more than 30 countries have agreed to participate in the release of the Strategic Reserve Oil (SPR) conducted by the US administration.
“This morning, 30 countries around the world held a special meeting and agreed to release tens of millions of additional barrels of oil to the market,” President Biden said in his speech, AFP reported.
However, the specific countries of these 30 or so countries are not yet known.
Earlier, President Biden announced on March 31 that he would release 1 million barrels of oil per day over the next six months.
Consumer prices in the United States have soared the most in regarding 40 years, and there are concerns that high oil prices caused by the Ukraine war that began with the Russian invasion might fuel inflation.
In addition to the release of oil reserves, President Biden has urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), such as Saudi Arabia, to speed up production.
However, OPEC and OPEC Plus (+), a group of oil-producing countries such as Russia, decided to increase production in May from the existing ‘400,000 barrels per day’ to ‘432,000 barrels’ at the meeting the previous day.
President Biden and the Democratic Party of the United States are focusing their efforts on price control, judging that intensifying inflation caused by high oil prices might be a bad news for the November midterm elections.
This is the third oil release since Biden took office. Previously, the US administration announced the release of its first oil reserves in November last year, and last month, it jointly conducted additional releases with member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
South Korea, along with major countries, participated in the two previous releases of oil stockpiles.
