The Trump administration said Wednesday the U.S. will release 172 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, its boldest attempt yet to bring down oil prices that have spiked since the U.S. launched its war against Iran.
“We’ll do that, and then we’ll fill it up,” President Donald Trump told Cincinnati news station Local 12 in an interview Wednesday afternoon. “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again. But right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced later Wednesday that the drawdowns would begin next week and take about 120 days.
The U.S. release is part of an effort by the 32 members of the International Energy Agency — which include the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K. and France — to release 400 million barrels of oil held in emergency reserves, the largest such effort in the body’s history.
