US Moves to Release up to 92.5 Million Barrels of Oil From Reserves

The release is structured as an ‘emergency exchange’ that oil companies must return later.

The Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an oil storage facility, in this aerial photograph over Freeport, Texas, on April 27, 2020. Adrees Latif/Reuters

The United States is moving forward with a plan to release up to 92.5 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), with the Department of Energy (DOE) soliciting bids from companies.

“Today’s solicitation opens competitive bidding, continuing DOE’s execution of President Trump’s swift 172-million-barrel release as part of a coordinated 400-million-barrel action by International Energy Agency (IEA) member nations’ strategic reserves,” the DOE said in a statement on April 30.