Biden’s SPR Refill Plan a Nothingburger & the World is Playing Musical Chairs with Russia Sanctions

MAIN TAKEAWAYS

• The Biden Administration’s announcement to refill the SPR with three million barrels of sour crude oil in February is a non-event for 11 reasons listed below.  

• The Biden Administration could release more sour crude oil as the Keystone pipeline outage drags on.   

• Europe will come under heavy pressure to meet its gas needs in 2023.

• Algeria and Egypt are benefiting from Europe’s plan to reduce dependence on Russian gas.

• The impact of sanctions on Russian oil exports remains limited as the world reroutes shipments, and key global consumers increase purchases of Russian crude oil.

• Turkey is positioning itself to become a major regional energy player.

List of Charts

• Quarterly Global Oil Demand Since 2010

• Oil Production in the Gulf of Mexico

• Drop in European Gas Demand by Sector in 2022

• Russia’s Natural Gas Exports to the EU (Pipe & LNG) in 2022

• Iraq’s Basrah Crude Oil Exports to India

• Iraq Oil Exports by Destination