White House won’t take tapping strategic oil reserve off the table

But he said the administration is monitoring oil prices “very
carefully.”

“The president is keenly aware of the impact higher gas prices have
on families trying to make ends meet,” Carney said.

The White House in June approved the release of 30 million barrels of
oil from the reserve to combat supply losses from Libya that officials
said are threatening the economic recovery.

The 727-million barrel reserve, which is stored in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast, was established after the oil embargo of the 1970s.

Emergency sales of oil from the reserve are rare and have occurred in 1991 at the outset of Operation Desert Storm and again in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf oil production and refining sector.