Liam Denning, Columnist

Biden’s Stock-and-Awe Oil Offensive

His plan to release reserves along with several other countries can dampen prices — temporarily.

November 23, 2021 at 3:17 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

President Biden’s new plan to release oil reserves is making OPEC+ unhappy.
Photographer: Ryad Kramdi/AFP via Getty Images

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President Joe Biden shouldn’t expect an invitation to Saudi Arabia to place his hands on a glowing orb anytime soon.

Tuesday’s announcement that the U.S. will release 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as part of a wider draw coordinated with other countries, is a direct rebuke to OPEC+, the group that Saudi Arabia leads alongside Russia. It also implies a potentially important shift in the role of strategic reserves in the oil market.