Big Oil blasts Biden for turning to OPEC for more crude

[MovieMadness]

Big Oil blasts Biden for turning to OPEC for more crude

Big Oil is not pleased with the White House's push this week for more crude from OPEC and its allies.

The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful lobby group that represents the US oil and gas industry, is arguing President Joe Biden should be working to boost oil production at home before looking overseas.

"You'd think the first place you would go would be American producers, rather than OPEC, which literally held this country hostage for decades because they were our top supplier," API President Mike Sommers told CNN Business.

In response, a White House official stressed the importance of "reliable and stable energy markets at this critical moment" in the global recovery from the pandemic.

"President Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable energy, including at the pump," the US official told CNN Business.

The national average price of gasoline stands near a seven-year high at $3.18 a gallon, up from $2.18 year ago, according to AAA. Higher energy prices are a reflection of supply failing to catch up with surging demand as people fly and drive more now that many have been vaccinated.

OPEC and its allies like Russia, known collectively as OPEC+, continue to hold back supply they took offline at the onset of the pandemic. They've only gradually added barrels.

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Biden stopped pipielines and drilling in the U.S., then begs OPEC for more oil. This is incompetence and why gas prices hit a seven year high.