The new date is Mar 31, 2022.
The White House said in a statement Thursday that President Joe Biden will release 1 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months in an effort to combat a spike in oil and gasoline prices.
The facility is in Texas.
The recent increase in energy prices was the reason the White House decided to use the oil reserve.
The White House said that the release will be the largest release of oil reserves in history.
Around 180 million barrels is the equivalent of two days of use around the world.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumes around 21 million barrels of oil a day, of which 40% is gasoline.
West Texas Intermediate oil futures were down by over 3% at noon.
The White House said that Biden will authorize the use of the Defense Production Act to increase domestic production of minerals and materials that go into large-capacity batteries.
The oil release would reduce the amount of demand destruction needed in a world without inventory buffer and supply elasticity.
In the past six months, the U.S. has tapped the strategic reserve twice, once after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine and again after the Islamic State group took over parts of Iraq and Syria. The U.S. banned imports of Russian oil and gas because of the sanctions. Major oil production companies, including ExxonMobil, have moved their businesses out of Russia.
Oil prices dropped nearly $5 a barrel.
What a 180 million barrel oil release means for the market.
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