As stated in a recent Tuesday report from Reuters, millions of the barrels of oil from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve that were released by President Joe Biden have managed to make their way over to Asian and European countries, including China.
Biden has recently been bragging about his plan to release over a million barrels of oil per day in an “unprecedented” move to “provide a historic amount of supply” in the face of many Americans dealing with rapidly increasing prices at fuel pumps. As has been seen, the average price of gas across the United States is currently sitting at $4.80 per gallon, as reported by AAA, with the average price for the nation temporarily breaking the $5.00 per gallon level just last month.
Despite the crisis we are dealing with, Reuters was able to make use of customs data to discover that at least five million barrels of that oil were sent out internationally to Europe and Asia just last month as the strategic reserve are being bled down to the lowest levels they have seen since back in 1986. Phillips 66, a large American oil refiner, shipped roughly 470,000 barrels of sour crude from stores in Texas all the way out to Trieste, Italy, while Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), a section of the French company Total Energies, sent out two shipments of 560,000 barrels each.
In the same vein, other sources throughout the industry claimed to the outlet that even more crude oil was shipped out to India, China, and the Netherlands.
When questions about the report, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed she had no knowledge of the issue and would need time to “look into it.”
The cost of fuel all over the world has been on the rise in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, the Biden administration has followed policies such as canceling all of the planned expansions to the Keystone XL Pipeline last year and blocking pretty much all new drilling permits. In addition to bleeding the fuel reserves, Biden has even tried to beg the oil companies themselves to drop their prices voluntarily despite what that could do to the companies.
“There is no question that Vladimir Putin is principally responsible for the intense financial pain the American people and their families are bearing,” Biden stated in a recent letter addressed to a group of seven gas and oil companies. “But amid a war that has raised gasoline prices more than $1.70 per gallon, historically high refinery profit margins are worsening that pain.”
In the same vein, Biden has targeted the privately owned gas stations, which survive on margins as small as 1.4%, as reported by research from IBISWorld.
“My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril,” claimed Biden via social media. “Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.”