steinphoto
The Division of Vitality has immediately purchased over 40M barrels of oil to replenish the U.S. emergency stockpile, and wishes extra money from Congress to fund extra purchases.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was depleted after a document drawdown in 2022 to tame oil costs that spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The DOE on Monday introduced contracts to accumulate 4.65M oil barrels, bringing its direct purchases to refill the SPR to 43.25M barrels. Complete crude bought or stored within the SPR since 2022 now totals 180M barrels, together with the 140M barrels secured by working with Congress to cancel sure gross sales.
“As promised, now we have secured the 180M barrels again to the SPR launched in response to Putin’s battle in Ukraine,” mentioned Secretary of Vitality Jennifer Granholm. The reserve at present holds 375.1M barrels of oil, in comparison with 600M barrels in the beginning of 2022.
And the Biden administration has no plans of stopping purchases but. “We are going to maintain going into subsequent 12 months and attempt to purchase again as a lot as we’re able to shopping for again,” Deputy Vitality Secretary David Turk instructed Bloomberg.
Nonetheless, Turk mentioned the administration has solely round $1.2B for SPR purchases. “We want extra funds to purchase again much more and we’re in persevering with contact with Congress to ensure everyone seems to be doing their half there.”
Whereas he didn’t disclose the quantity being sought, Turk mentioned the DOE was asking Congress to cancel extra previously-mandated reserve gross sales, noting that 100M barrels in gross sales stay on the books.