Granholm: SPR On Track To Exceed Pre-Sale Levels, New Probe Into LNG Pause

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, states that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is on track to "be at or exceeding" levels it would have been without a series of sales to ease an oil price spike following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• Granholm added that the return of, "one SPR site from maintenance will give united states opportunity to buy more oil."
• During SPR sales, Republicans accused the DOE of using the SPR as a political tool ahead of the 2022 midterm elections to prevent political fallout from oil prices.
• Granholm will receive more scrutiny on an alleged politicisation of the Department when she provides testimony to the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee on President Biden's FY2025 request for the DOE on Wednesday. The hearing comes in the wake of a GOP second probe into the Biden Administration's decision to pause LNG exports.
• Bloomberg reports: "[The House Oversight Committee] is seeking a trove of documents and communications between the [DoE/Biden administration] arguing the move announced by the administration in late January was an attempt to appease liberal advocacy groups opposed to LNG exports ahead of the November presidential election."
• Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) said in a letter to Granholm: “The Biden Administration appears to be weaponizing DOE’s public interest analysis and the administrative state to prolong new LNG export project approvals at the behest of leftist environmental groups. The timing of the decision, in an election year, raises the likelihood that political motivations drove the action.”