Drivers wait in line to pump gasoline into vehicles at a Costco Wholesale Corp. warehouse gas station in Hawthorne, California, on June 12, 2024. In May, the Biden administration announced that the one million barrels of gasoline in the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve were up for sale. Contracts were awarded to five companies, and barrels were sold at an average of $2.34 per gallon. The gasoline was released to the contracted companies as of June 30.
“This is a one shot deal,” says Hochstein, adding that it was timed before July Fourth to blunt the pressure on gas supply due to travel demands. This release of gas should flow supply into gas stations during the Fourth of July rush. It’ll primarily impact Northeast states including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. But Hochstein says it could reach the Midwest, as well.
Today’s oil prices are influenced by global factors including the war between Russia and Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. Both areas producing oil and gas are under a lot of strain, says Hochstein. In 2022, following the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the administration announced a 180 million-barrel sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase gas supplies.