The White House announced the “historic release” of 1 million barrels a day of oil from the country’s emergency stockpile in a bid to cool crude prices, and has also said it will seek to punish some US oil companies that do not begin drilling, reports The Financial Times.
The new release, by far the biggest ever announced, will last for six months, amounting to about 180 million barrels in total, draining almost a third of the US’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
“The scale of this release is unprecedented – the world has never had a release of oil reserves at this 1m per day rate for this length of time,” said the White House. “This record release will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up.”
Full story: The Financial Times
Read more:
US Warns India, Others Against Big Buy-Up of Russian Oil
US Weighs Largest-Ever Draw From Emergency Oil Reserve
Oil Drops on China Demand Fears as Ukraine Peace Talks Loom
