Heat Wave Causing Refinery Outages and Contributing to Gas Price Surge, Analyst Says

Last week, gas prices reached an 8-month high in the U.S. at $3.714 per gallon, following a high volume of production cuts from OPEC. That number has since increased, which an analyst pinned directly on the ongoing heat wave taking place throughout the country.

On Monday, gas averaged $3.757 per gallon, up more than 16 cents from a week ago, according to AAA. Patrick De Haan, the lead petroleum analyst at the fuel savings site GasBuddy, explained how the heat wave contributed to this uptick.

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It Could Take ‘Decades’ to Refill America’s Oil Reserves Drained by Biden, Experts Say

It may take decades to refill the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) after President Joe Biden released unprecedented amounts from its supply in 2022, according to Bloomberg News.

Aging infrastructure, higher oil prices and budget constraints have impeded the administration’s efforts to substantially replenish the SPR after Biden tapped its supply to tame spiking energy prices in the lead up to the 2022 midterms, according to Bloomberg. The massive underground salt caverns that hold the SPR oil now sit half-empty with no easy route to replenishment, and experts say it could take decades to refill the reserves, according to Bloomberg.

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OPEC Seeks New Members

OPEC, the world’s largest oil cartel, is looking for new members, the group’s secretary general told reporters Wednesday, according to CNBC.

Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais told reporters at a Vienna conference that he is actively working to grow OPEC — currently comprised of 13 members based primarily in the Middle East, Africa and South America — noting that he had recently visited several oil-producing countries including Malaysia, Brunei, Azerbaijan and Mexico, although he stressed that he was not suggesting those countries in particular had been invited to join OPEC, according to CNBC. The cartel has been working alongside Russia and other nonmember nations in the larger OPEC+ alliance to prop up oil prices via a string of production cuts, to mixed results.

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Saudi Arabia Confirms That Biden Pressured OPEC to Delay Oil Production Cuts Until November

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a rare statement Wednesday confirming that the Biden administration pressured OPEC+ to delay oil production cuts until November.

The OPEC+ oil cartel, which includes Russia, slashed production by two million barrels per day (bpd) on Oct. 5 prompting the White House to threaten consequences for Saudi Arabia due to the ensuing jump in gas prices. The Saudi Foreign ministry responded on Oct. 12 with a lengthy defense of the decision, resisting pressure amid discussions with the U.S. to delay a decision until November, when it might be too late for the price hike to affect midterm election prospects, according to The Associated Press.

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Biden Turns to Communist Dictatorship for Oil After OPEC Slashes Production

The Biden administration proposed a deal that will ease sanctions on Venezuela, allowing Chevron to pump oil in the country after the consortium agreed to its largest production cut since the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The U.S. will unfreeze hundreds of millions of dollars of Venezuelan state funds held up in American banks and in exchange, the country will allow Chevron to produce oil on its lands, according to the WSJ, which cited sources familiar with the deal. The proposal comes after OPEC agreed earlier on Wednesday to cut oil production by two million barrels a day, a decision the White House called “shortsighted,” according to a statement.

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Gas Guru Predicts Massive Price Increase at the Pump

Recent production cuts by OPEC are predicted to raise gas prices by 15 to 30 cents, according to energy analyst Patrick De Haan.

De Haan’s prediction, if accurate, will leave gas prices at an estimated $3.95 to $4.10 per gallon, according to U.S. gas averages recorded by AAA. While current gas prices are not directly tied to oil supply on a day-to-day basis, the dwindling gas supply in America will eventually feel a ripple effect as the oil supply continues to be reduced.

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Gas Prices Rise for Two Straight Weeks, OPEC Expected to Drive Them Higher

Gas prices have continued to rise over the past two weeks, and now OPEC has announced a major decision that will likely drive those prices higher.

OPEC said Wednesday that it would reduce oil production beginning in November by 2 million barrels per day. OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries largely based in the Mideast, said in a statement it made the decision “in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks, and the need to enhance the long-term guidance for the oil market, and in line with the successful approach of being proactive, and preemptive…”

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Biden Asks Asian Countries to Release Oil Reserves as Administration Scrambles to Combat High Gas Prices: Report

Joe Biden

The Biden administration asked China, Japan, South Korea and India to tap into their emergency oil reserves as the president continues to grapple with rising gasoline prices, Reuters reported.

The effort to simultaneously release oil reserves represents a rebuke of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the cartel that controls oil production throughout the Middle East, several anonymous sources familiar with the request told Reuters on Wednesday. OPEC has repeatedly rejected requests from President Joe Biden and other top administration officials to increase oil production amid rising gasoline prices.

The four Asian nations the president appealed to represent some of the largest energy consumers and greenhouse gas emitters, according to a University of Oxford database.

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As Fuel Costs Rise Heading into the Winter, Biden May Utilize Strategic Reserves

Jennifer Granholm

As the supply chain crisis continues to worsen, Americans can expect to pay higher energy costs in order to maintain heating in the coming winter, says Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Granholm said “this is going to happen…it will be more expensive this year than last year.”

While Granholm claimed that “we are in a slightly beneficial position…relative to Europe,” she nonetheless admitted that the United States has “the same problem in fuels that the supply chains have, which is that the oil and gas companies are not flipping the switch as quickly as the demand requires.”

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