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Biden's adviser says US 'can't be an oil supplier'

Saturday, 23 July 2022 6:19 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 23 July 2022 7:42 PM ]

US President Joe Biden (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

One of US President Joe Biden’s top energy advisers has said that the United States cannot be an oil supplier, adding that the administration must stop tapping into the oil reserve.

“We can't be an oil supplier. It's a reserve and so we have to keep that,” Amos Hochstein, Biden’s Special Presidential Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, said on Friday.

“There's a little bit of hysteria at the moment in the analysis of oil markets,” he added.

The price of crude oil was below $95 a barrel as of Friday, while the average gas price in the US was $4.41 a gallon, showing a drop from this time last month.

Hochstein stuck to his previous prediction that gas prices would soon “come down more towards $4” a gallon, noting that the administration was in a position to keep prices down.

“I’m doing all I can to increase the supply for the United States of America, which I expect to happen,” Biden said last week after meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The Saudis share that urgency and based on our discussions today, I expect we’ll see further steps in the coming weeks,” the US president added.

Khashoggi shadow looms large as Biden seeks reset of ties with 'pariah'

The slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s shadow loomed large over US President Joe Biden’s much-anticipated meeting with Saudi crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

Biden has been under fire for his visit to Saudi Arabia, the country he had promised, when running for president in 2019, to make the “pariah that they are” over its human rights abuses, in particular the brutal murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the direct orders of the Saudi crown prince, widely referred to in media as MBS.

Biden's fist bumping with MBS during their first in-person interaction was particularly censured by human rights groups and fellow Democrats.

Gas prices in US doubled under Biden administration

The gasoline prices have hit another all-time high in the United States, as President Joe Biden continues his war on American energy, amid the conflict in Ukraine.

Meantime, Biden and his administration have been looking for ways to increase oil production to stop gas prices from rising further as the nation approaches mid-term elections.

In a virtual meeting with his economic team on Friday, Biden praised his government for its efforts, claiming gas prices have “fallen every day this summer for 38 days in a row.”

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