We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. The president didn't set a deadline for himself to do so-but in retrospect, an expedient one might have been useful. A little over a year after his declaration, the U.S. is heavily involved in a conflict in the Middle East that has left a hole in globally traded petroleum supply and caused U.S. gas prices to jump.
We anticipated this could be an issue. He didn't offer details but said it's designed to 'mitigate against' the price impact. The U.S. does not have immediate plans to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Bloomberg reports. But ING analysts said in a note: 'The longer the Middle East disruptions last, the more likely we are to see coordinated emergency releases from several countries.'
