RIYADH: US President Joe Biden has promised to tame rallying oil prices despite a lukewarm response to his efforts to garner support to ramp up output from the biggest oil producing countries, according to Bloomberg.
This comes as Brent crude — the global benchmark — soared 25 percent since November to reach $89.17 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest since October 2014.
Current oil prices mark the highest level they have been since 2014 with projections indicating they could hit three digits in the near term.
This threatens the US economic rebound, according to Bloomberg.
Moreover, surging gasoline prices are a major cause of inflation during Biden’s term, also putting political pressure on his stance during the upcoming elections.
This is against a backdrop of retail gasoline prices experiencing a non-stop rise since the beginning of 2022 to reach an estimate of $3.31 per gallon.
“We’re going to work on trying to increase oil supplies that are available, but it’s going to be hard,” Biden said, according to Bloomberg.
The White House also intends to monitor prices in a global growth context and hold meetings with OPEC countries when required.
Last November, Biden released 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to curb rallying prices, in collaboration with Japan, India, South Korea, and China.
