The U.S. Energy Department said on Wednesday that it has bought 900,000 barrels of crude oil for nearly $56 million, a small step in replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Trafigura Trading will supply 600,000 barrels while Energy Transfer Crude Marketing will supply 300,000 barrels, an Energy Department document said. The solicitation, which called for up to 1 million barrels, was announced in October.
The oil will be delivered in December and January to the Bryan Mound SPR site in Texas, the Energy Department said.
President Donald Trump’s administration has been looking to replenish the SPR, but has been limited by a lack of funds and by ongoing maintenance at the reserve, held in a series of hollowed-out salt caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
Pumps, pipes and other above-ground SPR infrastructure are constantly exposed to corrosive, salty air.
Trump’s tax and spending bill included about $171 million for the SPR oil purchases and maintenance, much less than the $1.3 billion that had originally been in the legislation.
Buying more oil for the SPR will likely require the passage of new legislation.
The previous administration of former President Joe Biden sold record amounts of oil from the SPR, including a 180-million-barrel sale after Russia, one of the world’s top oil producers, invaded Ukraine in 2022. The reserve, which has about a 700-million-barrel capacity, is now holding more than 410 million barrels.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)