The U.S. has bought nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil to help replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after the largest sale ever from the facility in 2022, the Energy Department said on Friday.
About 800,000 barrels per month of the domestically produced sour, or relatively high in sulphur, oil will be delivered to the reserve’s Bryan Mound, Texas site from January to March next year, it said.
The contract for the purchase of more than $180.3 million worth of oil was awarded to Macquarie Commodities Trading US LLC, it said.
The department said on Aug. 12 it had planned to buy up to 6 million barrels, at a rate of 2 million per month from January to March. It did not immediately respond to a query on whether the remaining 3.5 million barrels could be bought for the Bryan Mound site for delivery in that time period.
The administration of President Joe Biden is slowly replenishing the reserve after it sold 180 million barrels from the facility in 2022 to control gasoline prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
So far the administration has bought back more than 47 million barrels, the Energy Department said, at an average price of $76.89 a barrel, about $18 lower than the average price of $95 per barrel it sold the oil in 2022.