The US Department of Energy has announced plans to sell off a million barrels of gasoline from a strategic reserve in the northeast, aiming to lower gas prices ahead of the summer season.
The move was viewed by President Joe Biden as a political ploy to boost votes ahead of the November presidential election. However, the release of a million barrels of gasoline from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) is likely to have little real impact on prices, as the US consumed roughly nine million barrels of motor gasoline daily last year.
The sale of a million barrels of oil from the NGSR was required as part of a bill signed into law to fund the Department of Energy for the 2024 fiscal year, which runs until September 30. The NGSR, which only holds a million barrels of gasoline, has never been used and has been criticized by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) for its exorbitant annual cost to maintain compared to other US crude oil reserves.
The NGSR is smaller than America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds almost 370 million barrels of oil.
The move was viewed by President Joe Biden as a political ploy to boost votes ahead of the November presidential election. However, the release of a million barrels of gasoline from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) is likely to have little real impact on prices, as the US consumed roughly nine million barrels of motor gasoline daily last year.
The sale of a million barrels of oil from the NGSR was required as part of a bill signed into law to fund the Department of Energy for the 2024 fiscal year, which runs until September 30. The NGSR, which only holds a million barrels of gasoline, has never been used and has been criticized by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) for its exorbitant annual cost to maintain compared to other US crude oil reserves.
The NGSR is smaller than America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds almost 370 million barrels of oil.
