Soros-Backed Sale of U.S. Oil Reserves Seen as Putin Penalty
America’s emergency stockpile of oil stands twice as large as the amount required by an international pact. George Soros has proposed selling some now to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and U.S. lawmakers are starting to listen.
As the U.S. and its European allies seek to rebuke Russia for taking over the Crimea region of Ukraine, America could push down global oil prices by as much as $12 a barrel by selling 500,000 barrels a day from its strategic reserve, said Philip Verleger, a consultant who worked in the Ford and Carter administrations. The lower prices would cost Russia about $40 billion in lost income from oil and gas sales, equivalent to 2 percent of its economy, he said.
While Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has dismissed the idea, it was raised before a congressional hearing yesterday, less than a week after Soros discussed the subject at a panel in Berlin. The strongest sanction against Putin for taking control of Crimea “is in the hands of the United States” because America could sell oil reserves to depress prices, the billionaire investor said March 20.
“America can and should be an energy superpower,” Senator Mary Landrieu, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said this week at her first hearing as head of the panel. “The last thing Putin and his cronies want is competition from the United States of America in the energy race,” said the Louisiana Democrat.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-26/soros-endorsed-sale-of-u-s-oil-reserves-seen-as-russian-penalty.html