Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday the United States has not yet decided whether to join the international effort to try to calm energy markets by releasing oil from its strategic petroleum reserve.
A decision not to join countries like Japan, Germany and others in releasing some 400 million barrels in petroleum announced earlier Wednesday would make the United States an outlier in the bid to reassure the market that has risen 30 percent since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. Iran retaliated against the military action now nearing its second full week by attacking oil tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest thoroughfares for waterborne crude.
“I think what you’re hearing out of the IEA today is reasonable on their part, but clearly, whether the U.S. participates is up to President [Donald] Trump, he’ll make the final decision on that,” Burgum said Wednesday in a television interview.
The U.S. Energy Department “was involved in the discussion” for an international release, a person familiar with the situation said. But “the U.S. SPR will not be part of the release.”
