U.S. to release 1 million barrels of oil per day from reserves to help cut gas prices

The U.S. will release 1 million barrels of oil per day from its strategic reserves to help cut gas prices and fight inflation across the country, the White House announced Thursday.

President Joe Biden plans to tap the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months as domestic producers ramp up production, according to a fact sheet released by the Biden administration.

“The scale of this release is unprecedented: the world has never had a release of oil reserves at this 1 million per day rate for this length of time,” the White House said in a release. “This record release will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up.”

A senior administration official told reporters Thursday morning that, in combination with similar actions in other countries, the average daily amount released from global strategic reserves should exceed 1 million barrels.