The U.S.is seeking to loan energy companies up to 40 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help push fuel prices down, the Department of Energy said on Wednesday. The latest U.S. offer to loan the oil is part of a previous U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility. So far the U.S. has loaned about 133 million barrels of the oil in that agreement. The U.S. agreed in March with about 30 fellow member countries of the International Energy Agency to release about 400 million barrels from global reserves to help calm oil markets after the U.S. and Israel began war on Iran on February 28. The SPR holds oil in caverns on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Inventories in the SPR, now at 349.2 million barrels, are at their lowest level since August 2023. Companies borrowing the oil are required to return the original volumes, with premiums of up to 24% in the form of extra oil. The department says that system will help stabilize markets at no cost to U.S. taxpayers. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said about 35 to 40 million barrels of extra oil will be returned this year and next in the form of premiums.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones and David Gregorio)