The price of Brent crude – the most used way of measuring the UK’s oil price – fell by nearly $4 (£3.05) to $109.21 (£83.21) a barrel on reports that President Joe Biden is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This would be the biggest release since they created the reserve in 1974.
News outlets expect Biden to announce his administration’s latest measures to address soaring fuel prices later today (31 March).
“Desperate times, clearly call for desperate measures and clearly the Biden administration believes the spike in oil prices warrants this move to eat into the country’s emergency supplies,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“A drip release of one million barrels of oil is on the cards for the next six months, a sign that the administration does not expect it to be a quick resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, which has squeezed oil supplies.”
...