US Department of Energy Offers 17 Million SPR Barrels

The United States Department of Energy issued a request for proposals on Friday to release up to 17 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This action supports a 172-million-barrel commitment made by Washington as part of a broader 400-million-barrel emergency plan announced by the International Energy Agency in March.

The release follows a Thursday announcement from the International Energy Agency to accelerate the distribution of approximately 100 million outstanding barrels, including 20 million barrels of diesel, to counter a tight fuel market. The American Petroleum Institute recently estimated that U.S. crude stocks declined by 11.12 million barrels last week.

If the full 17 million barrels are drawn, SPR inventories will drop from 283 million to 266 million barrels, placing the reserve within its operational minimum zone. Previous efforts to release oil in June faced limited success, with companies taking only 500,000 barrels because repayment premiums reached as high as 24%.