During a portion of an interview with Spectrum News Washington Correspondent Corina Cappabianca aired on Spectrum News Columbus on Monday, GasBuddy.com Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan said that refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is pushing up oil prices. De Haan also noted that Russia and Saudi Arabia cutting production is another reason for the jump in oil prices that has led to gas prices increasing, and argued that the SPR releases were one factor in the cuts by the Saudis and Russians.
De Haan stated that the increase in oil prices is helping drive the gas price surge, and this oil price surge “has to do with Russia and Saudi Arabia cutting oil production. In addition, we’ve seen heat-related outages at some of the largest refineries in the country in the last couple of weeks in Texas and Louisiana, at a time that gasoline demand is at its highest and gasoline inventories are at their lowest July levels since 2015.”
He also said, “Up until the end of July — or up until the end of June, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was releasing oil almost on a weekly basis, which was helping to add supply into a market. That’s part of the reason why Saudi Arabia and Russia cut production. But now, the releases from the SPR have ended and that’s actually probably pushing prices up, because now, the SPR is slowly being refilled.”
According to data from the Energy Information Administration, the SPR is at its lowest level since 1983.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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