US weighs oil futures market action to combat price spikes, White House official says

March 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to announce measures ​as soon as Thursday aimed at combating rising energy prices in the wake of the Iran conflict, including potential action involving the ‌oil futures market, a senior White House official said.

The potential move would mark an unusual attempt by Washington to influence energy prices through financial markets rather than physical oil supplies, as officials race to blunt the political and economic impact of rising fuel costs.

The details of the plan are unclear and the White House official, speaking on condition ​of anonymity to discuss internal matters, declined to provide specifics, saying they did not want to get ahead of the Treasury announcement.

U.S. crude futures ​have jumped nearly 21% since the war with Iran started on Saturday, as the spreading conflict disrupted Middle East supplies. The ⁠national average cost of gasoline, meanwhile, has risen 27 cents since last week to $3.25 per gallon, according to AAA, a U.S. travel organization that ​tracks fuel prices.

The idea of U.S. intervention in the futures market reflects the background of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager and ​global macro investor who spent decades trading currencies, bonds and commodities before joining the administration.

Bessent previously served as chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management and later founded the macro hedge fund Key Square Group.

A Treasury spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

Energy analysts said the effectiveness of such a move would depend heavily on ​the specifics.

"The devil is in the details… we will have to see what the U.S. government’s plans are," said Ben Hoff, head of commodity ​quant research at Societe Generale, who called the potential step unprecedented.

He said financial tools can only go so far in influencing energy markets, which are driven primarily by ‌physical supply ⁠and demand.

The U.S Federal Reserve intervened to combat the financial crisis in 2008 by purchasing massive amounts of mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds in a policy called Quantitative Easing.

Treasury last October also used its Exchange Stabilization Fund to prop up Argentina's currency by buying pesos in the open market and backing a $20 billion swap line for Latin America's third-largest economy.

That fund, created during the Great Depression, had total assets of $220.85 billion as of January 31.

In recent ​years, it has been used to ​back Federal Reserve lending facilities ⁠during crises such as the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 U.S. bank stability crisis.

There have been examples of government energy market interventions outside of the United States.

Mexico, for example, has for years executed ​a hedging program called the "Hacienda hedge" – once the world's largest financial oil deal – to protect the country's oil ​revenues from price ⁠crashes on the world market.

However, the Latin American country is hedging physical oil inventory rather than using purely financial instruments.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was not concerned about rising U.S. gas prices driven by the widening Iran conflict, telling Reuters in an exclusive interview that the U.S. military operation was his priority.

"I don't have ⁠any concern ​about it," he said when asked about the higher prices at the pump. "They'll drop ​very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit."