The U.S. Energy Department bought 3.2 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it said on Friday, as the Biden administration slowly refills the stash after sales last year pushed its level to the lowest since 1983.
The Biden administration will also announce on July 7 another solicitation for additional purchase of an unspecified amount of oil for the reserve to be delivered in October and November, the department said.
The administration has now bought 6 million barrels for the reserve this year after it conducted a record sale of more than 180 million barrels to fight high oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. It hopes to buy at least 12 million in total this year for the reserve. The Energy Department announced the solicitation on June 9 for the purchase completed on Friday. It said the purchase price averaged $71.98 per barrel, lower than the average of about $95 per barrel it was sold for last year.
The companies selling more than $230 million in oil to the SPR this time were:
Atlantic Trading & Marketing – 500,000 barrels
Macquarie Commodities Trading US LLC – 1.5 million barrels
Shell Trading (US) Company – 600,000 barrels
Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals LP – 600,000 barrels.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington Editing by Matthew Lewis)