White House: Oil Release is an Option Under Consideration

The White House confirmed on Friday that a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was an option under consideration and said it was monitoring changes in global oil market prices.

"As we've said for some time, a release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an option that is on the table," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a news briefing.

"The administration does carefully monitor the global oil market and the global price of oil," he said, adding the United States would "continue to coordinate" with other major economies on its findings as leaders agreed to do at the G8 summit in May.

Reuters reported on Thursday that U.S. officials were "dusting off old plans" for a potential release of oil reserves to dampen prices and prevent high energy costs from undermining sanctions against Iran.