“All Tools On Table” To Respond To OPEC+ Including More SPR Releases, White House Says

President Biden has made it clear that “we have to have all tools on the table” to keep gasoline prices affordable David Turk, the Energy Department’s deputy secretary said Tuesday at forum held by Axios.

Turk was responding to a question on whether the administration was willing to move forward with an export ban on refined products in response to OPEC+’s decision to cut production.

But while the Biden admins was reluctant to pursue an export ban, a move which would send oil prices substantially higher over the long run, it had less qualms about potentially extending its drain of the “emergency” oil reserve.

“We still have some additional ability to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the coming weeks and months as needed,” Turk said.

As a reminder, under the admin’s current plan which has drained roughly a third of the SPR so far this year in hopes of keeping the price of oil ahead of the midterms low while pretending it is some sort of emergency (just wait until China invades Taiwan for a real example of that), the SPR drain is expected to end some time in the next three weeks – a deadline which may be extended by a few weeks to cushion the blow – at which point prices are set to explode.

For context, the Biden administration has cut the SPR to a record low 22 days worth of supply…

And speaking of the White House’s unspoken intentions, Turk was kind enough to make those clear:

*WHITE HOUSE SEEKING TO KEEP ‘DOWNWARD PRESSURE’ ON OIL: TURK

No surprises there, of course; that said, in light of this admission Biden’s continued demands that US producers pump more may not be the most fruitful ones.