Symbolic oil release from strategic reserve

This is about symbol over substance, so much that even Reuters gets what the real story is, leading this way:

(Reuters) - Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral agreement to release strategic oil stocks, two British sources said, in an effort to prevent high fuel prices derailing economic growth in an election year.

How much oil and when?

Details of the timing, volume and duration of the emergency drawdown have yet to be settled but a detailed agreement is expected by the summer, one of the sources said.

Wow, summertime! Gee, isn't that about when the Democrats hold their nominating convention?

You may remember last June when the president ordered the release from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve of thirty million whole barrels. I observed on June 25,

Remember just this week when President Obama ordered the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Do the math:

Daily consumption - 18,771,000 barrels per day (actually almost 3 million bpd less than it was before the recession).

SPR release - 30 millions barrels.

How long before the SPR release is all used up - 1.6 days, which is to say, yesterday.

Today, oil prices dropped sharply when the president announced the planned release, but the drop lasted only about a half-hour once the detail (and lack of details) became apparent. Take, for example, today's graph of the ETF oil-index fund, USO:

Myself, I see this as a buy opportunity. (I am not invested in USO even one dollar nor intend to, so I am not hawking any personal interest here.)

All along, Obama has said there is no "magic bullet" to fuel prices:



But again, Reuters gets what is really happening, hence this quote:

"The Obama administration can only take so much political pain from rising gasoline prices, which pose a serious threat to the economy and the president's re-election," said Bob McNally, a former White House energy adviser and head of U.S. energy consultancy Rapidan.

Now we understand (as if there was anything to misunderstand).