President Donald Trump's sudden announcement that the U.S. would unload some of its Strategic Petroleum Reserves to ease the market pressure resulting from the war in Iran caught some allies off guard, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Trump's announcement that it planned to undertake the largest-ever oil market intervention left some allies "stunned." The announcement was made at a time when global oil prices had soared following the coordinated strikes by the U.S. and Israel in Iran.
On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told his global counterparts that an intervention was "premature" because the price of an oil barrel had stabilized near $90. Two hours later, Trump had changed his mind and forced the administration to begin preparing to release the country's oil reserves, the WSJ reported.
Analysts also seemed shocked by the Trump administration's lack of preparation.
“The fundamental thing I’ve been shocked by is the lack of preparation for the energy-market consequences of this,” Arnab Datta, managing director of policy implementation at Employ America, told WSJ. “There was nothing ready. Absolutely nothing.”
Hamad Hussain, an economist at Capital Economics in London, was also skeptical that the move would pay off.
“The rate at which IEA members can provide emergency barrels to the market cannot concurrently cover the loss of supply in the Middle East, even if the hostilities were to end soon,” Hussain said.
