08/04/2022 by Mark
According to sources speaking to Bloomberg, the UK has agreed to follow the United States in releasing some of its strategic oil reserves. The anonymous sources did not mention the size of the UK’s release, however, pointing out the need for countries to act in harmony and mentioning market sensitivities.
Oil prices have been rising in recent months as the demand for oil recovered from the pandemic-related drop, and the situation in Ukraine has focused attention on finding alternatives to Russian crude oil to produce fuel and other products like petrochemicals and spindle oil for industry.
The development follows the US announcement of the biggest release ever from strategic oil reserves, with it planning to inject a million extra barrels of crude oil every day for six months, which adds up to about 180 million barrels. A statement said about this unprecedented release:
“The world has never had a release of oil reserves at this 1 million per day rate for this length of time. This record release will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as [a] bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up.”
Some US oil majors – such as Chevron and ExxonMobil, the maker of Mobil lubricants – have already announced plans to increase production. The White House statement also mentions measures to encourage further US oil production, such as extra fees that may be charged to companies for their leases of Federal land if they fail to use them for oil production.
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