Filed under: News
From the Huffington Post:
President Obama on Wednesday appeared to raise the possibility that the administration would release oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve to provide relief to Americans grappling with high gas prices.
Speaking at a gathering of personal finance writers at the White House, Obama suggested the conflict in Libya has removed large enough flows of oil from the global supply to perhaps justify a release of oil from the nation's emergency stockpile to address soaring prices.
"My general view has been that the strategic petroleum reserve is to be used when you don't have just short term fluctuations in the market, but where you have a disruption," Obama said. "Libya has taken 125 million barrels off the market. We're examining broadly what that means in terms of the oil market."
The violence in Libya has frozen output from a country that once produced about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, or 1.8 percent of the world's supply. The stalled production began in late February and has shown no signs of abating.
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