The U.S. added 2.4 million bbl of sour crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the four-week period that ended Friday, bringing the stockpile to 372.6 million bbl, the Department of Energy said on Monday.
The Biden administration has added barrels to the reserve in each of the first six months of the year, though the June total was the smallest monthly addition this year.
Still, SPR holdings are nearly 42% below where they were when the administration took office in January 2021.
The administration has been conducting a series of monthly crude purchases to restock the reserve after tapping it to help reduce energy prices, first during the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and then following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
SPR now holds 228.8 million bbl of sour crude and 143.8 million bbl of sweet crude, according to the DOE data.
The administration awarded contracts for delivery of 2.95 million bbl of sour crude to the SPR in June, with delivery of the remaining barrels likely to be reflected in data released next week.
Upcoming purchases include contracts for 3.2 million bbl of crude delivered in July, 3.25 million bbl in August, nearly 2.8 million in September, 3.3 million in October and 3 million in November.
DOE in June said it made no awards for a solicitation seeking 4.5 million bbl of sour crude to be delivered to the Bayou Choctaw SPR site in October, November and December.
The agency did not explain why it decided against awarding contracts, but had earlier said it was seeking to buy crude at no more than $79.99/bbl.
Prices for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude recently topped $80/bbl. The NYMEX August WTI contract was up 75cts to $82.29/bbl just before 11 a.m. ET Monday.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-01-24 1125ET
