CNN — The Biden administration is not debating whether to unleash another round of emergency oil from the national stockpile at this time, an administration official told CNN on Thursday.
In response to the war in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden announced a plan on March 31 to release one million barrels of oil per day for six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That amounts to an unprecedented release of 180 million barrels of oil.
The SPR release plan is scheduled to lapse in October — even as uncertainty about Russia’s supply of energy remains very high.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the news agency that the Biden administration is weighing further releases.
However, officials are now pushing back on that characterization, with a Biden administration official telling CNN that at this time the White House is not considering new releases from the SPR beyond the 180 million barrels announced in March.
