US buys 6M oil barrels for strategic reserve

Oil tanks

The US boosted its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) by adding 6 million oil barrels, set to be delivered to Bayou Choctaw, Louisiana, at a rate of 1.5 million barrels per month from February to May 2025.

The Department of Energy stated that 3.5 million barrels were purchased from ExxonMobil, 2 million barrels from Shell Trading, and 500,000 barrels from Macquarie Commodities Trading US, at a total cost exceeding $411 million, Reuters reported.

The purchases are part of an effort to replenish stockpiles after President Joe Biden ordered the largest ever sale from the reserve in 2022 of 180 million barrels in an effort to control fuel prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The department only has enough money in its fund for SPR purchases to buy about another one million barrels at about $75 per barrel. To continue to keep filling the SPR after that, the department must ask Congress for more money and/or persuade it to cancel upcoming congressionally-mandated sales.