US aims to ease problems after Hurricane Ida
The US is currently missing out on 1.5m bpd of production in the gulf so this balances that out. Over time though it will have to be replaced. That could come out of the planned 20 million barrel release for later this year that the US will use to pay for economic stimulus.
Bloomberg's Javier Blas argues that release oil from the SPR only solves half the problem:
The US learnt nothing from the Katrina crisis. It keeps a vast crude reserve but nearly zero refined petroleum products - at difference of European nations, which keep products. So when refineries are down (as with Katrina and now with Ida), the SPR probes useless.
To be sure, the SPR can help... but the US right now has a double oil problem: it's missing >1.5m b/d of domestic crude supply from the GoM (plus oil imports due to LOOP closure) AND a similar amount of oil refining capacity as refineries don't have power and some were damaged
WTI crude settled at $69.99 today, up $1.40 but just short of the key psychological level and well below the $70.61 intraday high.
