纽约时报 拜登为降低油价--只剩最糟的选择(3)（在线收听）

    Mr. Biden and his aides have been jawboning U.S. oil executives to pump more oil with little success.

    拜登和他的助手一直在向美国石油业高管施压，要求他们增加石油产量，但收效甚微。

    Most oil companies are reluctant to expand production because they fear that drilling more now will lead to a glut that will send prices tumbling.

    大多数石油公司不愿扩大产量，因为他们担心现在开采过多会导致供过于求，从而导致油价暴跌。

    They remember when oil prices fell below zero at the start of the pandemic.

    他们还记得，在疫情爆发之初，油价曾跌至零以下。

    Big companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell have largely stuck to the investment budgets they set last year before Russia invaded Ukraine.

    埃克森美孚、雪佛龙、英国石油公司和壳牌等大公司在很大程度上坚持去年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之前设定的投资预算。

    Energy traders have become so convinced that the supply will remain limited that the prices of the U.S. and global oil benchmarks climbed after news broke that Mr. Biden was planning to travel to Saudi Arabia.

    能源交易商非常确信，石油供应仍将是有限的，在拜登计划访问沙特阿拉伯的消息传出后，美国和全球基准石油的价格都出现了攀升。

    Oil prices rose to about $120 a barrel on Friday, and the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.85 on Sunday, according to AAA, more than 20 cents higher than a week earlier and $1.80 above a year ago.

    美国汽车协会的数据显示，周五油价涨至每桶120美元左右，周日全国普通汽油均价为每加仑4.85美元，比一周前高出逾20美分，比一年前高出1.8美元。

    Another Biden administration effort that has appeared to fall flat is a decision to release a million barrels of oil daily from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

    拜登政府的另一项努力似乎没有取得成效，那就是决定每天从战略石油储备中释放100万桶石油。

    Analysts said it was hard to discern any impact from those releases.

    分析人士表示，很难看出这些释放有任何影响。

    The Biden team has also been in talks with Venezuela and Iran, but progress has been halting.

    拜登团队也一直在与委内瑞拉和伊朗进行谈判，但进展一直停滞不前。

    The administration recently renewed a license that partly exempts Chevron from U.S. sanctions aimed at crippling the oil industry in Venezuela.

    美国政府最近更新了一份许可证，使雪佛龙在一定程度上免受美国制裁，该制裁旨在打击委内瑞拉的石油业。

    In March, three administration officials traveled to Caracas to draw President Nicolás Maduro into negotiations with the political opposition.

    今年3月，三名政府官员前往加拉加斯，劝说总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗与政治反对派进行谈判。

    In another softening of sanctions, Repsol of Spain and Eni of Italy could begin shipping small amounts of oil from Venezuela to Europe in a few weeks, Reuters reported on Sunday.

    路透社周日报道，在另一项放宽制裁的措施中，西班牙的雷普索尔和意大利的埃尼集团可能在几周内开始从委内瑞拉向欧洲运送少量石油。

    Venezuela, once a major exporter to the United States, has the world’s largest petroleum reserves.

    委内瑞拉曾经是美国的主要出口国，现在拥有世界上最大的石油储量。

    But its oil industry has been so crippled that it could take months or even years for the country to substantially increase exports.

    但该国的石油业严重受挫，该国可能需要几个月甚至几年的时间才能大幅增加出口。

    With Iran, Mr. Biden is seeking to revive a 2015 nuclear accord that President Donald J. Trump pulled out of.

    在伊朗问题上，拜登正在寻求恢复唐纳德·特朗普总统退出的2015年核协议。

    A deal could free Iran to export more than 500,000 barrels of oil a day, easing the global supply crunch and making up for some of the barrels that Russia is not selling.

    如果达成协议，伊朗可以每天出口50多万桶石油，缓解全球供应紧张的局面，弥补俄罗斯没有出售的部分石油。

    Iran also has roughly 100 million barrels in storage, which could potentially be released quickly.

    伊朗还有大约1亿桶的石油储备，可能很快就会被释放出来。