Ukraine war: Germany slams Putin ‘blackmail’ over demand for gas payments in roubles; Biden releasing 1m barrels of oil per day to cool prices
President Putin says “unfriendly” foreign buyers must pay in roubles for Russian gas from Friday, or else contracts will be halted. Germany and France have reiterated that European countries will continue to pay in euros or dollars.
Barrels will come from US’s strategic petroleum reserve, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent prices skyrocketing.
US President Joe Biden has ordered the release of up to one million barrels of oil per day from the United States’ strategic petroleum reserve, as it moves to lessen the impact of rising gas prices amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US and other nations have barred imports of Russian oil and gas over the country’s ongoing invasion of its neighbour, while European countries have pledged to wean themselves off energy supplies from Moscow.
“Today I’m authorising the release of one million barrels per day for the next six months – over 180 million barrels,” Biden told reporters from the White House on Thursday afternoon.
“This is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year. And it is by far the largest release from our national reserve in our history.”
The US president is seeking to lessen the impact of the Ukraine war on American consumers, as the price of gas has surged in the country over the past year.
“This is having an immense political impact on President Biden, who is eyeing those midterm elections later this year,” Hanna said.
“This release of the stockpile could have the consequence of relieving gas prices within the United States, adding to the global stockpile, of reducing the price of oil, which has been soaring in terms of the shortages that have occurred in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Biden also called on US oil producers to prioritise increasing production over profiting from the crisis in Ukraine. “If we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now,” he told reporters.
AP, AFP
