Biden to release 15M barrels from oil reserve, more possible
Biden to release 15M barrels from oil reserve, more possible
Joe RommMonday 4th July, 2016
President Obama is planning to release five million barrels of oil from a U.S. offshore oil reserve within 30 days, as well as other oil from another reserve in Alaska and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, potentially raising to as much as 15 million barrels more than previously known, the Obama administration announced Monday.
The amount of oil is greater than estimated and could further stimulate economic activity and create jobs in the United States, the administration said in the release.
“It is a recognition of the importance of oil in the United States economy, and it should be a game-changer for the economy,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in a statement. “This will strengthen our energy security, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make a significant contribution to our energy economy.”
Obama’s plan is part of a push to boost oil production in an effort to boost American energy independence and reduce the nation’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil. And if the president is successful in boosting production, it will be the biggest increase in American oil reserves since the country went from producing 4.5 million barrels a day in the 1970s to producing more than 13 million barrels a day in the 2000s and the largest increase in oil reserves in American history, the Department of Energy said.
President Obama’s energy plan, which is being released in conjunction with the release of the country’s new national energy strategy, includes the release of as much as 15 million barrels more of oil from several different Arctic oil fields and the oil reserves in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater fields, which the administration said could produce up to 9.2 million barrels of oil per day.
That would bring the nation’s total oil reserves to more than 56.5 billion barrels, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia as the top producers of oil in the world, the Department of Energy said. It also would be the largest increase in oil reserves since the nation began producing oil in the U.S. in the early 1970s.
The oil to be released Monday includes: