US President Joe Biden accused major oil companies of profiting from the difference in fuel prices and partly responsible for their rise, at a time when his administration uses various means to reduce prices, including withdrawing from the strategic reserve, but this did not immediately achieve the desired results.
Biden said - in a speech from the White House - that "fuel prices in the wholesale market have fallen by about 10% over the past years, but the price at gas stations has not moved a penny."
The US president added, "In other words, the fuel companies pay less and profit much more," accusing them of earning the difference between the wholesale and retail prices, stressing that this is "unacceptable."
For her part, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that "fuel prices at the stations are very high at the moment ... but we will turn this page in early 2022."
And before the Americans begin their long-distance trips to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with their families tomorrow, Thursday, President Biden launched an initiative based on pumping 50 million barrels of strategic oil reserves into the American market, the largest amount to be used since the creation of this reserve in the seventies of the last century.
Biden's initiative and goals
This initiative aims - according to the Minister of Energy - to reduce oil prices, which rose by 60% within 12 months.
"We believe that the price of a gallon (equivalent to 3.78 liters in America) will fall in December to $3.19, from an average of $3.40 yesterday," and it "will fall further in January," she said.
The US initiative, announced yesterday, calls for the release of millions of barrels of strategic reserves, in coordination with China, India, South Korea, Japan and Britain, to try to calm the rise in oil prices after major global producers repeatedly ignored calls to pump more supplies.
For his part, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said - today, Wednesday - that his government will withdraw from oil reserves in response to US demand in a way that does not violate Japanese law that does not allow the sale of stocks except in the presence of risks of supply disruption.
"We are working with the United States to stabilize the global oil market, and we have decided to join them in selling part of our national oil reserves in a way that does not contradict the current (Japanese) oil reserves law," Kishida told reporters.
And Japanese Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda told reporters earlier today that Japan would withdraw "a few hundred thousand kiloliters" of its national oil reserves, but the timing of the sale was not specified.
One kiloliter equals 6.29 barrels of oil.
On the other hand, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said today, Wednesday, that Beijing will arrange the release of quantities of oil reserves, according to its needs, and will take measures to achieve market stability.
Despite the American move to contain the high prices, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil rose at the end of trading on Tuesday by $2.61 (3.3%) to record $82.31, while the price of a barrel of Texas crude rose by $1.75 (2.3%) to $78.50.