A Tokyo-based energy markets researcher called attention in a Twitter post to President Joe Biden's decision before a new COVID variant surfaced to release millions of barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Victor J. Martinez, a senior researcher at Asia-Pacific Energy Research Centre, took to social media shortly after Biden's decision was announced.
"In response to the highest oil prices in seven years, [the] Biden administration will release 50m barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve - SPR," Martinez said in his Tuesday, Nov. 23 Twitter post. "A set of similar announcements are expected from China, Japan, India and South Korea."
Martinez has been with Asia-Pacific since September 2019, according to information on his LinkedIn page. He previously was a senior professional of strategic development and nuclear power for the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission and was energy markets unit head for Chile's Ministry of Energy.
Martinez's Twitter post linked to a DOE news release issued the same day that described Biden's decision to direct U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm to authorize the crude oil release.
"As we come out of an unprecedented global economic shutdown, oil supply has not kept up with demand, forcing working families and businesses to pay the price," Granholm said in the news release. "This action underscores the president’s commitment to using the tools available to bring down costs for working families and to continue our economic recovery."
The Twitter post, Biden's decision and DOE's news release all came before the global economic recovery was cast into doubt when more recent reports of a new coronavirus variant, Omicron, began to surface. Omicron, which may push the pandemic's end – along with worldwide economic recovery – further into the future, sent stock markets plummeting worldwide.
