President Joe Biden is close to announcing another big release of oil from emergency stocks in the US as he steps up efforts to cool crude prices that are feeding in to high inflation across the economy, three people familiar with the plan said.
The move by the White House is expected on Thursday and would mark the third and potentially biggest oil release it has announced since November.
Oil prices fell on reports of Biden’s impending announcement, with West Texas Intermediate, the US oil marker, down 4.9 per cent to $102.49 and international benchmark Brent crude down 3.6 per cent to $109.34.
One person familiar with the plan said the final details were still being ironed out but the release from the US strategic petroleum reserve was expected to last several months and amount to as much as 1mn barrels of oil per day.
The US consumes about 20mn barrels a day, representing about a fifth of global demand.
At 1.30pm on Thursday, Biden is due to speak on “his administration’s actions to reduce the impact of [Vladimir] Putin’s price hike on energy prices and lower gas prices at the pump for American families”, according to the White House schedule.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden has increasingly blamed Russia’s president for high inflation, which is hurting his approval ratings and damaging the Democratic party’s chances of retaining control of Congress in the midterm elections in November.
The White House move also comes as western countries…
