Biden Could Refill Strategic Oil Reserve At $80 Per Barrel. Democrats Blocked Trump When Oil Was $24.

The White House plans to refill the nation’s oil reserves once prices fall below $80 per barrel, according to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg. President Joe Biden has addressed rising gas prices by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a stock of emergency crude oil created to “reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products.” 

Though reserves in January 2021 were as high as 638 million barrels, reserves have fallen to 434 million barrels as of last week — a level not seen since 1984.

Multiple people familiar with the Biden administration’s deliberations told Bloomberg that officials might begin refilling the reserves once crude prices dip below $80 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the American benchmark for crude oil, was more than $85 per barrel as of Thursday morning, approaching levels seen at the beginning of the year.