Biden administration announces purchase of 3 million barrels of oil to replenish reserves

The Biden administration this week announced the purchase of up to three million barrels of oil to replenish the nation’s sharply depleted reserves, a push that comes after the White House drained those reserves to their lowest levels in nearly 40 years.

The Department of Energy said in a Friday press release that it was moving to “start repurchasing crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve” with “a purchase of up to 3 million barrels of crude oil.”

The program will “allow for fixed-price purchases of crude oil,” the DOE said.

 “Relative to conventional purchase contracts that expose producers to volatile crude prices,” the department argued, “this new approach, when used at scale, can give producers the assurance to make investments today, knowing that the price they receive when they sell to the SPR will be locked in place.”

Deliveries of the oil are expected to start arriving at reserve facilities in February of next year.