- Oil retreated yesterday as traders and investors prepare for a possible coordinated release from strategic reserves in the U.S. and other nations, including China (Bloomberg)
- WTI fell to a six-week low early Thursday morning before paring some of the overnights loses
- Some U.S. lawmakers are taking the opportunity to revive legislation that would subject the OPEC oil cartel to antitrust laws
- President Joe Biden has asked the FTC to take immediate action to determine whether oil and gas companies have engaged in “illegal conduct” (S&P)
- The directive comes as Biden says, “I do not accept hard-working Americans paying more for gas because of anti-competitive or otherwise potentially illegal conduct,” Biden said in a Nov. 17 letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan
- The American Petroleum Institute attacked Biden’s letter as “a distraction from the fundamental market shift that is taking place and the ill-advised government decisions that are exacerbating this challenging situation.”