We are starting to see the makings of energy curtailments in Europe – an exceedingly unpopular step that governments would be unlikely to take if there were any other choice, highlighting the acute desperation that exists over oil and gas supplies. Another signal of this desperation is Biden’s plan to release a massive 180 million barrels of crude oil into the market from the SPR at a rate of more than a million barrels per day. This is a huge figure that will shrink the SPR to lows not seen since the ‘80s (~388 million barrels) when U.S. oil consumption was substantially lower than it is today. This decades-low emergency inventory would come at a time when U.S. production has stagnated with oil companies resisting calls to invest/pump more, and at a time when demand continues to rise. The UK said on Friday that it would also release more […]