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Faced with the dissatisfaction of the Americans because of the rise in gasoline, President Joe Biden seeks by all means to lower the price of a barrel on the markets. According to the Reuters agency, the American administration would have asked certain countries, large consumers of oil, to draw part of their crude reserves.
President Joe Biden is reportedly considering using US strategic reserves to lower the price of a barrel to help consumers as Christmas approaches. At the same time, the US administration would try to convince countries like India, Japan, South Korea, but also China to do the same.
The objective would be to unblock in a coordinated manner these strategic reserves in order to be able to influence oil prices. It would also be a way of defying the members of OPEC and its ally Russia who refuse to increase the production of crude despite repeated requests from the United States.
A strategic reserve of 609 million barrels
The American proposal is currently being considered and no decision has been taken by these countries. But the markets already fear a possible recourse by the US administration to strategic reserves, the largest in the world. Currently they stand at 609 million barrels. Consequence: oil prices have started to decline since the start of the week, investors are anticipating an increase in supply.
Still in the same process, Joe Biden on Wednesday asked the US competition authority to investigate the increase in prices at the pump. He suspects illegal behavior by some oil companies that could fuel price inflation. The American president is indeed seeking to curb the rise in fuel prices which, like everywhere else in the world, contributes to soaring inflation.
The latter is becoming a challenge for the US government as prices rose 6.2% year-over-year in the US, a 31-year high.
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