DOE Awards Five Contracts to Supply 3.2 Million Bbl of Crude to SPR in April -- OPIS

The Department of Energy on Friday said it awarded contracts to five companies to supply 3.2 million bbl of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in April.

DOE said that under the awards, ExxonMobil will sell the government 1.4 million bbl, while BP and Macquarie will each provide 600,000 bbl. Phillips 66 and Sunoco will each sell 300,000 bbl.

Under the terms of the solicitation, the crude will be delivered to the agency Big Hill, Texas, SPR storage site. The agency said eight companies responded to the request for proposals.

DOE said it paid an average price of $75.96/bbl, or a total of $243 million, for the crude, well below the average $95/bbl it sold SPR crude for in 2022. On Friday, the NYMEX West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract for April delivery settled at about $73.23/bbl.

DOE said that since it began buying oil to replenish the reserve last year, it has acquired 17.03 million bbl at an average price of $75.75/bbl.

The agency a week ago issued a solicitation to buy another 3 million bbl of oil for delivery to SPR in May. The Biden administration released 180 million bbl of crude oil from SPR beginning in early 2022 when global oil prices surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February of that year.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Frank Tang, [e-mail]; Editing by Jeff Barber, [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2024 15:34 ET (20:34 GMT)

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