The Biden administration’s plan to continue releasing the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) “as appropriate” to bring down retail rates poses limited downside from current crude price levels, Goldman Sachs said in a note dated Thursday. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the United States will sell 15 million barrels (mb) from the nation’s SPR by year-end, intended to prevent oil price spikes in the wake of a decision by OPEC+ oil-producing nations to cut oil production. The announcement, however failed to ease oil prices, as official U.S. data showed the SPR last week dropped to their lowest since mid-1984, while commercial oil stocks fell unexpectedly. “We find incremental SPR sales as the most likely action (16 mb is available from FY2023 Congressionally mandated sales), although this remains price dependent… Such a release is likely to have only a modest influence (<$5/bbl) on oil prices however,” […]