GOP Sen. Hoeven: OPEC Sees We Have to Replenish SPR and They’re Going to Make Biden ‘Buy it Back at a Higher Price’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) stated that OPEC sees the Biden administration draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and OPEC cutting production is “like jiu-jitsu.” And “They’re going to make the administration” buy oil to replenish the reserve “at a higher price.”

Host Larry Kudlow asked, “[W]hy would the Saudis want higher prices? Why would the Saudis want to help finance Vladimir Putin, for example?”

Hoeven responded, “You know, Larry, it really is an interesting question. You know, we’ve been — or the Biden administration has been taking a million barrels a day out of the Strategic Petroleum oil Reserve. … And they know, at some point, that’s going to have to reverse. We’re producing about a million less than we did at the end of the Trump administration. So, they see what’s going on here. And so, this is a really interesting move. And to me, it looks like an effort to really demonstrate their market power.”

Hoeven later added, “And think about this, the administration, at some point, is going to have to reverse taking a million barrels a day out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and start buying it back and putting it in. Now, if you’re OPEC, think about what you’re doing. You’re now — I mean, it’s like jiu-jitsu. They’re going to make the administration buy it back at a higher price.”

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