The president of the United States has ordered the US Department of Energy to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) with US crude oil, taking advantage of the collapse in global oil prices. Earlier in March 2020, the US administration suspended a planned sale of 12 mbl of crude oil from the SPR, citing adverse market conditions.
The SPR has a total storage capacity of 713.5 mbl, with 645 mbl already stored in underground salt caverns along the US Gulf Coast. It can be filled at a rate of 225,000 bbl/d for most storage sites. The United States will thus buy around 77 mbl of crude oil for an estimated US$2.6bn. This volume would remain insufficient to firm up prices and offset the announced increase in oil production from Saudi Arabia and Russia.
So far, the United States has invested US$25.7bn in the SPR, including US$5bn for facilities and the remainder for buying crude.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.