The U.S. will replenish every barrel of oil it releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday at an event in Sabine Pass, Texas.
“We’re releasing oil now, and for each barrel we’re releasing, we’re going to get at least 1.2 barrels of oil back into the reserve. We’ll leave it fuller than when we started,” he said.
* The Trump administration wants to do everything it can to lower gasoline prices, Wright said.
* “We understand Americans today are paying higher prices than they would like, higher prices than we would like to see, but it’s simply essential to end Iran’s ability to get a nuclear bomb,” he said.
* “It’s causing some short-term disruption. This will pass and gasoline prices will come right back down,” he said.
* Wright said that the U.S. could “easily” double its natural gas exports without increasing the domestic price.
* “There’s just an enormous, simply astounding amount of natural gas,” he said, noting that the country currently exports about 20% of the natural gas it produces.
(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Sabine Pass, Texas; Editing by Nathan Crooks and Deepa Babington)