With the largest oil producers in the world facing severe internal turmoil, the prices for crude oil is slowly heading toward $104 a barrel (an increase of over 21 percent in just two weeks), a number that displeases the Obama administration so much that the government is now considering doing what it has done on very few occasions: use the strategic oil reserve.
According to Seattle Times, the prices for regular gasoline reached $3.50 a gallon, the biggest jump since September 2005. If the growth rate continues, says White House Chief of Staff William Daley, the efforts made by the administration to make the economy recover may be in danger.
"You have increasing demand worldwide as the global economy improves," Daley was quoted as saying by the Seattle Times. "There's no question this recovery is real and strong. The price of energy can have a serious impact. ... The uncertainty in the Middle East has caused tremendous increase in the last few weeks."
The US currently sits on the largest reserve of oil in the world, estimated at 727 million barrels. The reserve fuel has been used (even if only several times, like during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005), ever since its creation in the early 1970, to control the prices of fuel in the country.
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