White House worried about high oil prices

The White House said it was concerned about the impact of rising oil prices on U.S. consumers but believes producers have ample ability to pump enough crude, Report informs, citing Reuters.

“Currently, we believe that there is enough spare oil production capacity globally,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “Because of the restart of (the) global economy and resumption of normal consumer activity, there is some impact on oil market conditions,” she said.

Psaki did not answer a question about whether anyone in the Biden administration had spoken with allies engaged in OPEC+ talks about whether to increase oil output.

Last Friday, the UAE blocked an agreement that assumed a monthly increase in oil production by 400 thousand barrels per day from August to December and the extension of the OPEC+ deal itself until the end of 2022. It may postpone plans to increase production until the end of the year.

In April, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that she called on Saudi Arabia to make energy available to consumers. After this call, the OPEC+ group agreed to ease the production cut from May gradually. The U.S. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Granholm would repeat the call this time.

Psaki said that President Joe Biden had opposed raising a gasoline tax in the infrastructure bill because of concern about consumers.

At the moment, oil production in the United States is about 11 million barrels per day. It reached its peak in January 2020, amounting to almost 13 million barrels per day.

As previously reported, Saudi Arabia considers it necessary to extend the deal on reducing oil production for OPEC+ member countries for the whole of 2022.