(Bloomberg) – The Biden administration announced Monday it has purchased 4.65 MMbbl of crude oil for the nation’s emergency cache as it continues refilling the depleted reserve.
The Energy Department has been slowly replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which reached a 40-year-low following an unprecedented drawdown in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, the Biden administration ordered the release of a record 180 MMbbl from the emergency oil supply in the face of surging retail gasoline costs.
Now, the administration is continuing to take advantage of a dip in crude prices, which have fallen about 10% since early April.
“We will keep buying back,” Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said in an interview. “We will keeping going into next year and try to buy back as much as we are capable of buying back.”
The contracts announced Monday bring the total amount of oil bought to refill the reserve to 43.25 MMbbl. The average purchase price was $77 a barrel, according to the Energy Department. In addition, the agency said it has accelerated the return of 5.5 MMbbl it loaned to oil companies.
The contracts were awarded to Exxon Mobil and Macquarie. The oil will be delivered to the reserve’s Bayou Choctaw storage site from October 1 through December 31, the Energy Department said.
The reserve currently holds 375 MMbbl of oil, according to Energy Department data. It held approximately 600 MMbbl at the start of 2022.
