The oil price has risen around 13 percent over the last 10 days which has pushed up gasoline prices in the US to uncomfortable levels and with elections in America on the horizon some say that we may see a few tactics employed to drive down the oil price.
Gas prices have now surged past the $3 a gallon mark, which has the potential to sway voters at the upcoming elections against the party in power which in layman terms means voting against Trump’s Republican Party which will break his majority in the senate.
Trump has a few aces up his sleeve to reduce the oil price such as opening up the US’s strategic oil reserves of which there are plenty.
Another way is the introduction of sanctions against Iran and how they are enforced with the US already seemingly backing down from there earlier threats for a blanket ban on countries buying oil from Iran while the sanctions are in place.
The Trump administration has now announced they will enforce the sanctions on a country by country basis which implies that some countries will be exempt.
“We are prepared to work with countries that are reducing their imports on a case-by-case basis,” said Brian Hook, the department’s director of policy and planning.
So how and when the US government will try to drive down oil prices is anyone’s guess but the chances of such a move happening is growing by the day.