The move comes as the administration has been meeting with oil company executives to negotiate ways to lower fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections in which inflation, partly driven by high energy prices, will be a key issue. President Joe Biden will speak about gas prices on Wednesday, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said in a tweet. “And we wanted to put the marker out there at this point that we will buy when they’re low.“

“In terms of protecting taxpayer funding being responsible stewards of the SPR, you want to sell when the prices are high and you want to buy when they’re low,“ the official said. That level is more than $10 below current benchmark prices. The administration will also soon set up a process to purchase oil from companies to refill the SPR at a price of $67 to $72 a barrel, the officials said. The officials pushed back on questions about whether announcing the December move was redundant with March’s approval, saying that “it was not a given“ that they would have carried it out if the oil market had stabilized.

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