Department Of Energy Begins Process Of Refilling Strategic Petroleum Reserve

According to Bloomberg, "the Energy Department plans to solicit bids for oil that will be delivered in February," following the release of 180m barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, staggered over six months.

• In October, President Biden said that the Department of Energy would consider replenishing the SPR in tranches when the price of WTI crude dropped below USD$70 a barrel.
• White House energy security adviser Amos Hochstein qualified that statement by saying the DoE would consider purchases when oil prices were trading “consistently” around USD$70.
• Liam Denning wrote in Bloomberg this week: "This year’s SPR sales were done at an average price of $96.25 per barrel, raising $17.3 billion. Even at the top end of the refill range, $72, that’s enough to buy back 240 million barrels, a third more than were sold. In theory, DoE could solicit for $4.3 billion worth of oil in the market, hand over $10.1 billion to the Treasury Department to negate the Congressionally-mandated sales — provided Congress played ball, of course — and still have $2.9 billion left over. In pure trading terms, that would be a home run."