White House won't rule out releasing more oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve

President Biden may authorize additional withdrawals of oil from the already depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) this winter, beyond the commitment he made this year to release 180 million barrels, senior administration officials said.

"We're going to use all the tools we have in the tool belt, and the SPR remains a very, very important tool. Not the only tool we have, but it's an important tool," a senior administration official said Tuesday. "If we need to authorize additional sales, significant additional sales… we'll be prepared to do so."

That comment contradicts remarks from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who said this month that the White House was not considering drawing more oil from the SPR.

"So we're not considering new releases, releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve beyond the 180 million, which is what you're talking speaking about, about the one million that the president announced months ago," Jean-Pierre said. "We're not going to be considering new releases."

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Biden is set to announce Wednesday that he will release an additional 15 million barrels from the SPR. That will complete a pledge he made this year to release 180 million barrels in an effort to put downward pressure on gasoline prices.

Even as it considers releasing more oil from the SPR, the White House is starting to sketch out plans to refill it. Oil reserves are down more than a third since Biden entered office, and the White House plans to start refilling it when oil prices drop to between $67 and $72 per barrel.

But administration officials said they're still confident the SPR is in a strong place to fulfill its job as a safety net in wars and natural disasters, and to help further with price moderation.

"The SPR still remains the largest strategic reserve with more than… 400 million barrels remaining. That is still a large amount of barrels," a senior administration official added. "You'll certainly see in the president's remarks… that we remain, DOE remains, very able, very vigilant, If we need to deal with additional challenges with supply, with affordability, then we'll have additional opportunity with the SPR."

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Some outside observers have criticized the president for his use of the SPR to moderate energy prices, which are a major issue in the midterms.

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"You could take the agnostic position that that's good for consumers… You could take the cynical position that it's to help Democrats in re-election," Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital this month. "But the reality is that Congress did not create the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for price moderation. It's strategic, which means you worry about whether there are wars or storms that directly impact Americans, and that we will make sure there's enough extra oil to keep people and the economy running."

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Biden's announcement that he's releasing an additional 15 million barrels Wednesday follows closely on the heels of an OPEC+ decision to cut daily production by 2 million barrels per day. The White House was highly critical of the move, which it said will hurt U.S. consumers and help Russia, a major oil producer, in its war against Ukraine.

Fox News' Patrick Ward contributed to this report.