US to sell part of its Strategic Petroleum Reserve

In this interview with Lubna Bouza from Sky News Arabia, Dr Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy, discussed the impact of the US government’s move to sell part of its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). 

Dr Nakhle explained that the move is in line with the US 2015 legislation. Although some would see it as an attempt to cool oil prices down, she argued that the impact would be marginal, if any, as up to 20 million barrels would equate to 54,000 barrels a day (less than 0.1% of world supply) which is far from being enough to exercise a meaningful pressure on prices. The revenues from the sale of part of the SPR would go into the funding of President Biden’s Infrastructure plan.

Commenting on the US controversial energy policy under Biden’s administration, Dr Nakhle stated that the US President is trying to balance between the country being the biggest oil producer and consumer simultaneously. Additionally, he wants to halt new oil and gas leases on federal lands, yet he asks OPEC to introduce more barrels to the market to ease the pressure on prices.