While the Biden administration was attempting to relieve high gas prices by using the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), US oil giants were caught hauling it to Europe where the price is even higher than the US, making "more money than God" as US President Joe Biden put it.

As another 26 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR is set to be released from the US Department of Energy (DoE) according to US reports, the SPR currently holds approximately 371.58 million barrels of oil and a storage capacity of 714 million barrels, per Energy Information Administration (EIA) data.

Read next: SPR crude inventories hit their lowest since January 1984 

After reaching a record 16-month low in December, gas prices began to skyrocket again. $3.091 per gallon was the average price in December 2022, but when February hit, it went back up to $3.444 per gallon per the EIA.

More Republican control

This comes amid a wave of changes by the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives - one being the introduction of a bill to limit the DoE's ability to release SPR stocks without approving more oil drilling on federal lands.

The SPR reached a historic low last year to make up for the loss of Russian energy exports due to the Western-imposed sanctions against Russia. In turn, prices of oil, energy and gas rose to record highs. Even though prices have been decreasing to a certain extent, they remain relatively high. Furthermore, the OPEC+ output cut exacerbated the use of SPR. 

Following the vote at OPEC+ that ratified the slashing of 2 million barrels per day in oil production, the US decided to tap further into their oil reserves. 

Despite this, oil firms in the US have been taking advantage and profiting massively through the sale of SPR petroleum in Europe, where the prices are even higher.  

Back in November, Biden called on oil and gas companies to use their record profits to lower energy costs, after he criticized major oil corporations for reeling in heaps of profit while Americans are paying substantial numbers to fill their vehicles with fuel. 

The US Department of Energy announced in December that it will purchase 3 million barrels of oil to replace withdrawals from the SPR due to high energy prices.