In this election year, rising oil prices will inevitably raise the question about the purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve: Is it to be used as a tool for price controls?

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Rather a drastic departure from the original economic purpose of the reserve to fill actual or imminent supply gaps in oil markets.

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Additionally, because many of the technologies that harness these energies are built using oil dependent machinery, there will be an additional push to develop technology for this purpose as well.

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Today Prime Minister Abe departs on a week long trip to Russia and the Middle East the main purpose and expected result of which is to help secure for Japanese interests ample future supplies of relatively cheap oil and gas.

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