U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright plans to seek up to $20 billion to accomplish President Donald Trump’s goal of refilling the nation’s depleted oil reserve to its maximum capacity, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
Wright told Bloomberg News in an interview that the initiative would restore holdings “just close to the top” to maintain efficient operating status.
“Ultimately that’s what it was built for — to have the maximum security for the American people,” Wright told Bloomberg.
Trump said last month that his administration would quickly fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He has criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for tapping the reserve to bring down the price of gasoline.
(Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru Editing by Christina Fincher and Tomasz Janowski)