Oil To The Rescue

The price of oil reached a new recent low today and it looks like it will continue to fall. Having once worked in the oil and gas industry and then recently unemployed from it, I am thankful that I have a job right now, nevermind it is not in the oil and gas industry. But I do feel for many friends and co-workers that I do know who are unemployed.

The International Energy Agency says it member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves.

This is an effort to keep prop up the global crude oil market, to keep world oil prices from spiking even further.

Those prices are already above 100 dollars per barrel, in part because of growing global demand for oil and oil-derivative products, the reduction in oil drilling and production in the United States, and the Russian attack on Ukraine.

So far, economic sanctions targeting Russia, do not involve Russia’s energy industry which is the financial lifeblood for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Currently, the United States is importing crude oil from Russia and Iran as the Biden Administration works to reduce U-S fossil fuel production and ramp up sustainable sources of energy. However the main fuel for transportation and commerce worldwide remains fossil fuels with no suitable replacement in sight.

Oil derrick in the sunset

Photo by Alpha Media USA Portland OR