President Barack Obama’s release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has political and economic benefits, but both are likely to be transitory. The timing is somewhat puzzling because the price of gasoline and crude oil has been falling the past month and we don’t seem to be in the kind of emergency the reserve was designed for during the days of the Arab price shocks back in 1975. The reserve has been breached only twice, and then briefly, in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina disrupted the Gulf oil industry and in 1991 when the Gulf War rattled world oil markets. The White House insisted it was acting to head off a possible disruption at a time of peak summer demand. Republicans denounced it as a political gimmick. The United States acted in concert as part of the 28-nation International Energy Agency, formed in 1974 as a counterweight to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The U.S. will draw down 30 million barrels from its stocks and Europe, Japan and South Korea 30 million barrels from theirs. IEA acted in response to the loss of 1.5 million barrels a day from Libya and OPEC’s refusal earlier this month, despite the best efforts of Saudi Arabia, to raise production quotas. Europe suffers most from the loss of Libyan oil, so perhaps maintaining international economic harmony was reason enough for Obama to order the release. At 30 million barrels, it’s hardly a major dent in the 727-million barrel reserve.

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