Page 9 - NorthAmOil Annual Review 2021
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NorthAmOil POLICY NorthAmOil
Biden administration approves
additional SPR release to ExxonMobil
US THE US Department of Energy (DoE) 10. Argus Media reported in late December that
announced on December 30 that it had approved ExxonMobil had until September 2024 to return
a third exchange of crude from the country’s the crude, making this the longest loan term
Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for release to available under a new federal programme. The
ExxonMobil. super-major will return an additional 8.6% of
The release is part of US President Joe Biden’s the loan volume, according to the information
strategy to help ease oil supply challenges and service.
lower gasoline prices. Under Biden’s direction, Days after the SPR release announcement,
the DoE authorised the release of 50mn barrels the US government welcomed a decision by
in total from the SPR in November, including up OPEC and its allies to stick to their planned
The Biden to 32mn barrels to be made available through an oil production increase for February. OPEC+
administration has now exchange, while also agreeing to accelerate the countries agreed on January 4 to raise output
provided over 7mn timeline for selling an additional 18mn barrels. by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in Febru-
barrels of SPR crude to Companies that receive SPR crude through ary. The US had been urging the group to
boost US supplies. the exchange agree to return the volumes they produce more oil in a bid to help the global
received, plus an additional amount that depends economic recovery from the coronavirus
on how long they held the oil. (COVID-19) pandemic and restrain rising
The DoE said on December 30 that with the crude prices.
latest exchange, as well as two others awarded West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was
earlier in the month, it had now provided over trading at around $80 per barrel as of January
7mn barrels of SPR crude to boost US supplies. 6. Meanwhile, fuel savings platform GasBuddy
The department previously approved a 4.8mn has forecast that US gasoline prices have not
barrel exchange with ExxonMobil on December yet peaked.
OPEC picks new Secretary-
General as restrictions ease
GLOBAL OPEC this week elected its new secretary-gen- appointment was welcomed by Saudi Energy
eral, voting in Kuwaiti industry veteran Haitham Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who
al-Ghais, who will replace Nigerian Mohammed offered his “cordial congratulations”.
Barkindo in August. His election was announced Meanwhile, he was quoted by Al Arabiya as
a day before the group and its OPEC+ partners saying that he expects global oil demand to reach
decided to proceed with their planned easing of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
output restrictions in February. With OPEC+ having been nervous about the
Al-Ghais told Reuters that supporting “the impact of the mutating coronavirus (COVID-
continuation of this Declaration of Co-opera- 19) when it last met, a JTC report on January
tion” into 2023 is one of his top priorities. “It’s 2 played down the impact of the Omicron var-
in the wider interest of the industry and all the iant. It said Omicron “is expected to be mild
23 countries that have signed up to this agree- and short-lived, as the world becomes better
ment,” he added, noting that he would work to equipped to manage COVID-19 and its related
“preserve and nurture” relations with Russia. challenges”, suggesting that the group was
The secretary-general-elect spoke of his unlikely to make any knee-jerk reactions.
“unwavering” commitment to the Joint Tech- This indeed turned out to be the case when
nical Committee (JTC) and the Joint Ministe- the group reached a quick decision on January
rial Monitoring Committee (JMMC). “I have 4, proceeding with plans to ease production cuts
hands-on experience of what the JTC does, what by a further 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) next
the JMMC does. I’ve attended all these meetings month. However, with some members having
since 2017, I haven’t missed a single meeting, struggled to reach their targets, only a fraction
even when I had a broken leg,” he said. Al-Ghais’ of this is seen making its way on to the market.
Week 01 06•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
