The U.S. Department of Energy announced that contracts have been awardedfor the purchase of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) following a Notice of Sale announced on September 19, 2022. The contract awards are part of President Biden’s announcement on March 31, 2022, to release as much as 180 million barrels of crude oil to address the significant global supply disruption caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine, act as a wartime bridge for domestic production to increase, and aid in lowering energy costs for American families.
A total of thirteen (13) companies responded to the notice, submitting 91 bids for oil from two SPR sites – West Hackberry and Big Hill. The sale is fully subscribed and the contracts were awarded to the following companies:
- Atlantic Trading & Marketing, Inc. 0.500 MMBL
- Equinor Marketing & Trading 2.050 MMBL
- Macquarie Commodities Trading US LLC 0.900 MMBL
- Marathon Petroleum Supply and Trading LLC 2.350 MMBL
- Motiva Enterprises LLC 1.750 MMBL
- Phillips 66 Company 1.400 MMBL
- Shell Trading (US) Company 0.700 MMBL
- Valero Marketing and Supply Company 0.500 MMBL
Crude oil deliveries will take place from the West Hackberry and the Big Hill SPR storage sites from November 1, 2022, until November 30, 2022. In addition to the 10.15 million barrels of crude oil awarded for November delivery, 155 million barrels have already been delivered as a result of the Administration’s historic use of the SPR.
The SPR is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil, and the federally owned oil stocks stored in underground salt caverns at four storage sites in Texas and Louisiana. The SPR has a long history of protecting the economy and American livelihoods in times of energy supply challenges.
