S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
Solutions
Capabilities
Delivery Platforms
News & Research
Our Methodology
Methodology & Participation
Reference Tools
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Featured Events
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
S&P Global Offerings
S&P Global
Research & Insights
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
About Commodity Insights
Solutions
Capabilities
Delivery Platforms
News & Research
Our Methodology
Methodology & Participation
Reference Tools
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Featured Events
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
S&P Global Offerings
S&P Global
Research & Insights
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
About Commodity Insights
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
Support
19 Oct 2023 | 20:23 UTC
By Herman Wang and Charlie Mitchell
Highlights
US, allies engaged in monitoring disruptions, DOE official says
SPR is 'tool' that could be used to offset market shortages
Congo oil minister says OPEC aiming for stable prices
The Biden Administration is closely monitoring the Israel-Hamas war impact on oil supplies, with a keen interest in avoiding any market shocks, a US Department of Energy official told S&P Global Commodity Insights.
That could include tapping the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, said Deputy Assistant Energy Secretary Joshua Volz, whose portfolio for the agency covers Europe, Eurasia, Africa and Middle East affairs.
The SPR, managed by the DOE, is "a tool that we continue to discuss, in terms of how we can deploy that and what specific circumstances we would go back to that tool, to try and provide additional liquidity to markets," he said in an interview on the sidelines of the African Energy Week conference in Cape Town.
President Joe Biden, who recently concluded a trip to Israel in the wake of a blast at a Gaza hospital that has inflamed tensions in the Middle East, has come under some political criticism for having drawn down the SPR to its lowest level since the 1980s, in part to alleviate market dislocations from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
That includes an unprecedented 180-million-barrel release throughout 2022 as prices were roiled and flows were rerouted by the invasion.
The SPR, a series of caverns along the US Gulf Coast, contained 349.7 million barrels of crude as of Oct. 1, according to the DOE, out of a total capacity of 714 million barrels.
"Energy markets are global in nature. We pay very close attention to any potential disruption in supply and a keen eye on how that will have an impact on energy markets more broadly and regional markets specifically," Volz said.
Oil markets have been on edge since the militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack in Israel that killed hundreds, with the Israeli government launching retaliatory strikes into Gaza.
Platts Dated Brent was last assessed Oct. 18 at $93.06/b, a $1.29/b increase on the day, with OPEC member Iran calling on Muslim countries to impose an oil embargo on Israel. Several OPEC officials, however, have told S&P Global that such an action is not being considered.
The Israel-Hamas war "is really bad for us because it will disturb drastically the market in a way that we don't know really who will be able to have control and have ... leverage on that," Republic of Congo Oil Minister Bruno Itoua said in a separate interview. "Really we try [in OPEC] to avoid becoming a political institution ... and based on that, as we always say, our interest is to have the most market stability."
An escalation of the conflict that embroils the region could have implications for US sanctions on Iran, which has backed Hamas.
Volz said the Biden Administration did not have any oil price target that would trigger any SPR release and was engaged with its allies in the Middle East on monitoring any potential disruptions to supplies. OPEC and several other key producers, including Russia, have implemented deep output cuts over the past several months aimed at bolstering prices in the face of uncertain global economic indicators.
"It is our policy and our interest to see well-supplied global markets, that economies continue to be well-supplied with energy so that we can continue economic growth that's so critical to social and political stability throughout the world," Volz said. "In that regard, we are looking at all of the options we have available and are in significant conversation with partners throughout the world, not just in the Middle East, about what global markets look like and what can be done to maintain that stability and that security."