Over 5 million barrels of US reserve oil were exported to Asia and Europe last month while domestic fuel prices broke records, report says

More than 5 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve were exported to Asia and Europe last month.

Two ships carrying 560,000 barrels each from Atlantic Trading and Marketing were among the shipments. The fourth largest oil supplier in the US sent about 470,000 barrels of oil from a storage facility in Texas to Italy.

Three ships went to Europe to replace Russian oil in April.

The US has seen a surge in oil exports since the beginning of the year. The US and European Union have imposed embargoes on Russian oil.

The Biden administration is trying to lower the price of fuel. The stockpile has fallen to the lowest level since 1986 because of record releases.

The average price of a gallon of gas in the US was $5 early last month. The price of gas has come down for the last three weeks.

"Crude and fuel prices would likely be higher if the releases hadn't happened, but at the same time, it isn't really having the effect that was assumed."