Interested parties were told to submit offers to the U.S. Department of Energy by Aug. 2 to purchase the oil, with delivery slated to take place between Sept. 16 and Oct. 21.
The oil is part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a U.S. government facility that holds oil in caverns in Texas and Louisiana.
Criticism
Nearly 2 million of the barrels have been sold to an entity linked to the Chinese Communist Party, according to an Epoch Times review, drawing criticism from Republicans.“Sending U.S. petroleum reserves to foreign adversaries is wrong, and it undermines our national security,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) told The Epoch Times.
Bidding on the oil is price-competitive, with sales going to the highest bidder.
Unipec, the entity, has lodged a number of bids in the past, and secured nearly 2 million barrels from the recent spate of sales as well as 4 million barrels during the fall of 2021 from a separate sale.
Impact on Prices
The reason given for unloading oil from the reserve is to lower gas prices, which have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels since Biden took office.“This is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year. And it is by far the largest release from our national reserve in our history,” Biden said in prepared remarks on March 31.
Analysts found that the gallon price was lowered by about 38 cents using an alternate approach.
“This decline in prices had meaningful benefits for American consumers and helped to mitigate the impacts of rising gas prices on economywide inflation,” the analysts, Assistant Secretary Benjamin Harris and Deputy Assistant Secretary Catherine Wolfram, wrote. “Moving forward, the Biden Administration is committed to further addressing concerns about rising energy prices.”
