A crude build, not the release of SPRs, brings down oil prices - slightly
President Biden's much-trumpeted release of SPRs, strategic petroleum reserves, neither brought down the rising oil prices nor forced the Middle Eastern producers to pump more out in order to relieve the pressure on tight global crude markets. On the contrary, the price of crude oil kept rising up until today, until both the API, American Petroleum Institute and EIA, US Energy Information Administration, confirmed a crude build during the past week. On Monday and Tuesday, the motorists - and manufacturers - clearly felt the pinch at pump with rising oil prices. As of 15:45 GMT, the price of WTI and Brent stood at $104.00 and $106.00 respectively. The cumulative release of crude stocks for a period of six months, analysts estimate, is just 5% of daily usage of crude oil in the US; a US Senator from the Republican Party has already branded the move as a drop in the bucket. The US energy policy in the current form is not a model solution to look at: on one hand, the administration
