OPEC gives US cold shoulder, won't produce more oil

Despite pleas from the Biden administration, OPEC+ has no intention of bolstering its oil production further before 2022.

According to Reuters, OPEC+ leaders see no reason to ramp up oil production further. In July, they decided to boost output to 400,000 barrels per day back in August "until its current oil output reductions of 5.8 million BPD are fully phased out."

The Biden administration released a statement Wednesday acknowledging its engagement with OPEC+ members to meet global energy demands.

"At a critical moment in the global recovery, this is simply not enough," reads the White House issued statement. "Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the ongoing global recovery."

OPEC+ recently bolstered oil production but did not offset previous production cuts the organization imposed during the COVID pandemic until well into 2022.

"The price of crude oil has been higher than it was at the end of 2019, before the onset of the pandemic." Biden asked OPEC+ to "do more to support the recovery" as the US continued to engage with them. They will meet again in September to decide on other policy.

"Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the ongoing global recovery. The price of crude oil has been higher than it was at the end of 2019, before the onset of the pandemic," Jake Sullivan said in the opening of last week’s statement.

Rep (R-TX) Dan Crenshaw, interpreted the stalemate as a brute force way of trying to address the problem, adding the Biden administration had already tossed out alternative approaches to “cleaner American coal and gas.”

Rep. Pete Stauber today shared a letter addressed to President Biden that he wrote at the end of last week. The congressman from Minnesota asked Biden why his administration relied on OPEC+ nations for help instead of strengthening domestic sources.