High fuel prices at the pump would likely extend into next year, President Joe Biden has warned, blaming the price rise on OPEC policies.
“My guess is you’ll start to see gas prices come down as we get by and going into the winter -- excuse me, into next year, in 2022,” the president at a public event in response to a question on inflation, as quoted by Bloomberg. “I don’t see anything that’s going to happen in the meantime that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices.”
“Gas prices relate to a foreign policy initiative that is about something that goes beyond the cost of gas,” Biden also said, adding. “That’s because of the supply being withheld by OPEC, and so there’s a lot of negotiation that is—there’s a lot of Middle Eastern folks who want to talk to me,” he said. “I’m not sure I’m going to talk to them, but the point is it’s about gas production. There’s things we can do in the meantime, though.”
The president, however, stopped short of going into the specifics of these “things” that can be done to push prices lower.
The White House has, several times since the start of the year, approached OPEC—and Saudi Arabia separately—in an attempt to make the cartel add more supply to international markets. These attempts have so far failed to yield any results. These latest claims that high American gas prices were the responsibility of OPEC are unlikely to make the cartel more cooperative.
Meanwhile, the administration has also approached the U.S. oil industry, too, to ask for more oil. That move has also failed to produce any results for American drivers as prices creep closer to $4 per gallon and in some states, exceed it. According to a Reuters report, the approach by the White House had not been met eagerly by the oil industry. In fact, the agency quoted one industry executive as saying there was no chance drillers would heed Biden’s plea for more oil due to his administration’s policies so far.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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