Trump approves release of oil reserves if needed

President Donald Trump says he has approved the release of U.S. strategic petroleum reserves "if needed" to stabilize energy markets after a Saturday attack on Saudi Arabian energy facilities.

Trump tweets that the attacks could have an impact on oil prices and says the final amount of the release, if any, would be "sufficient to keep the markets well-supplied."

The authorization alone could help prevent a spike in oil prices after the attack led to suspension of more than 5% of the world's daily crude oil production. The Trump administration has blamed the attack on Iran.

The federally owned petroleum reserve of hundreds of millions of barrels of crude oil has only been tapped three times, most recently in 2011 amid unrest in Libya.