It might as well be called the Strategic Political Reserve.
After the OPEC+ cartel rebuffed President Biden’s request to release more oil last Thursday, the White House floated the idea of releasing barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to tame prices. Tuesday’s outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said would form the basis of its next steps, did nothing to suggest it is needed. The agency barely increased its Brent crude oil price forecast for the fourth quarter and affirmed OPEC’s expectation that the world oil market will be oversupplied by 2022.