Business
Oil Prices: Will Obama tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
U.S. President Barack Obama. PHOTO/File
Barack Obama likes to say that as President of the United States, he doesn’t “bluff” when it comes to foreign policy. But when it comes to energy, it looks like Obama might be willing to try the occasional fake out.
Yesterday Reuters reported Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the possibility of releasing emergency oil reserves during a meeting on March 14.
Opening up the reserves would presumably help reduce oil prices, which have stayed well over US$100 a barrel in part because of concerns over conflict with Iran–and take some of the political pressure off President Obama, whose poll numbers have wavered as gas prices have risen. While talk of using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)—the 696-million barrel oil stockpile stored along the Gulf Coast—has buzzed among energy analysts for the past few weeks, the Reuters report was the first concrete sign that a release could be coming, and it was enough to force oil prices down for the third time in four days.
