The US Department of Energy (DoE) has decided to buy up to 30 mbl of crude oil by the end of June 2020 for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), to comply with a presidential directive to fill up the SPR with US crude oil.
The SPR has a total storage capacity of 713.5 mbl, with an available capacity of 77 mbl 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. The first 30 mbl will consist of both sweet crude (up to 11.3 mbl) and sour crude oil (up to 18.7 mbl), purchased from small and mid-sized US producers; deliveries are expected between 1 May ad 30 June 2020. A second round of purchases is expected in 60 to 90 days.