WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the United States would draw 15 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserves as the U.S. president scrambles to tackle rising gasoline prices as he approaches midterm elections on 8 November.
The move comes two weeks after the snub inflicted by Saudi Arabia, which sided with Russia in OPEC+ to decide on a cut in the cartel’s oil production likely to push prices up again. at the pump in the United States.
“With my announcement today, we will continue to stabilize markets and lower prices at a time when other countries’ initiatives have generated such volatility,” Joe Biden said at a White House ceremony. .
While noting that fuel prices had fallen by 30% since a peak reached this year following the surge in oil prices fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the American president judged that they “didn’t fall fast enough”.
“Families are suffering,” he said.
(Report Jarrett Renshaw and Steve Holland, with Doina Chiacu, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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