Joe Biden, who wants to lower the price of gasoline, appealed to American companies on Wednesday to increase oil production in the United States, according to AFP.

The U.S. “must sensibly increase U.S. oil production,” the president said at the White House after confirming that the U.S. would continue to use its strategic reserves to stabilize prices.

This increase in domestic production must be accomplished “without delaying our transition to clean energy,” the president said.

Biden also repeated his criticism of individual players in the oil and gas industry.

“Refinery profits are twice as high as usual. And the distributor’s margin is more than 40% higher than usual,” he wrote on Twitter.

15 million barrels of crude oil from the country’s strategic reserves

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a plan to sell 15 million barrels of crude oil from the United States’ strategic stockpiles and begin replenishing them in an effort to curb high gasoline prices ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Reuters.

The move comes two weeks after the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries angered Biden by siding with Russia and deciding to cut production, sparking fears of yet another rise in US gas station prices, News.ro cited.

“With my announcement today, we will continue to stabilize markets and lower prices at a time when the actions of other countries have caused such instability,” Biden said at the White House event.

Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine for driving up oil and gasoline prices, with prices down 30 percent from their peak earlier this year.