Some Believe IEA Could Dip Into Strategic Petroleum Reserves Periodically to Stem Price Increases

Link here.

I opined that the IEA would do exactly that -- dip into reserves periodically to try to stem prices. Now that the IEA has done it once, it becomes easier to do it again, except for a few inconvenient truths:

[One analyst] believes the IEA and U.S. Department of Energy could dip back into reserves to try to control rising prices. The IEA said the initial release was to make up for lost Libyan production. But [one pundit] said the criticism against the move was significant enough to crimp further actions.

"It would be like intervention in he currency markets in the 1980s. The intended purpose was to psychologically drive down prices and every time they intervened it almost expressed their desperation...it would be like putting gasoline on a burning fire," said [one analyst].

But a few inconvenient truths haven't stopped folks from doing crazy things in the past.