As OPEC Cuts World's Oil Supply, Biden Could Ask for Help from Brutal Regime in Venezuela

OPEC+, an alliance of oil-producing nations, announced Wednesday it's cutting back production by 2 million barrels a day.

The move is likely to cause a spike in gas prices and home heating oil in the U.S. 

Gas prices are already high and now they're expected to start climbing again. The national average for a gallon of regular stands at $3.87. 

Travel agencies are recommending people book their holiday airline tickets before fares begin to rise.

OPEC+ is led by Russia and Saudi Arabia.

President Joe Biden called the decision by OPEC+ to cut oil production a "disappointment," but says the White House is exploring "alternatives."

Biden didn't expand on what the alternatives might include as he departed the White House for New York Thursday, saying only, "There's a lot of alternatives. We haven't made up our mind yet." That could be because the alternatives are controversial.

Biden has already directed the Department of Energy to release another 10 million oil barrels from the U.S. strategic petroleum emergency reserve next month. 

And he's reportedly also looking to resume purchasing oil from the brutal authoritarian regime in Venezuela. This move would mean having to lift U.S. sanctions imposed on the country's leaders for human rights abuses against their own people.

The scaling down of sanctions would allow Chevron Corp. to resume pumping oil there, paving the way for a potential reopening of U.S. and European markets to oil exports from Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the move would put only a limited amount of new oil on the world market in the short term. 

Even if a deal with the Biden administration were to be struck, it remains to be seen if Venezuela could become a major oil supplier to the world as it once was in the 1990s. Two decades of malfeasance, mismanagement, and corruption coupled with chronic under-investment in maintaining, repairing, and refurbishing industry infrastructure means oil spills are nearly an everyday occurrence, according to OilPrice.com. 

GOP Senators Demand Biden Admin End Assault on Domestic Oil and Gas Production, Sell Federal Leases

Meanwhile, a group of 21 Republican senators led by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), are demanding the Biden administration end its assault on domestic oil and gas production and continue to sell oil and gas leases on federal land and water. 

The push comes in response to the Department of Interior's (DOI) draft proposal for the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, in which the department hinted that it might cancel future lease sales for the next five years. 

The American Petroleum Institute and the National Ocean Industries Association released a report in March outlining the potential economic consequences of delaying the Department of the Interior's (DOI) 5-year program for leasing in the Gulf of Mexico.

The report projected a lapse in the 5-year program could jeopardize American energy security by reducing domestic oil production by almost 500,000 barrels per day during that time period. It could also cost 60,000 jobs, along with billions of dollars in state and local revenues. 

In a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the senators wrote: 

"American families are struggling to keep up with rising costs due to inflation, high energy prices, and persistent supply chain issues. It is our obligation to do everything within our power to help ease these burdens and remove this uncertainty for both Americans and our allies."

"One of the most effective ways we can do this is to increase future domestic oil and natural gas production through long-term leasing certainty," the letter continued. "The Department can help domestic energy production and put American energy consumers first."

Lankford and Cassidy were joined by Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Jim Risch (R-ID), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Cornyn (R-TX), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Mike Braun (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

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