DOE Announces Contract Awards for Crude Oil Sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management announced that contracts have been awarded from the recent Congressionally-mandated Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) crude oil sale.

On December 17, 2021, DOE issued a Notice of Sale for a price-competitive sale of 18 million barrels of SPR crude oil. A total of 14 companies responded to this notice, submitting 111 bids for evaluation. Contracts were awarded to the following six companies:

• ExxonMobil Oil Corporation (500 thousand barrels);                       
• Gunvor USA LLC (1.5 million barrels);
• Marathon Petroleum Supply and Trading LLC (3.9 million barrels);
• Motiva Enterprises LLC (3 million barrels);
• Phillips 66 Company (1 million barrels); and
• Valero Marketing and Supply Company (8.2 million barrels)

From this sale the SPR sold a total of 18.1 million barrels, and of that amount 2.7 million barrels will be sold from the SPR’s Bryan Mound site (near Freeport, TX), 6.3 million barrels  from the West Hackberry site (near Hackberry, LA), 1.0 million barrels  from the Bayou Choctaw site (near Baton Rouge, LA), and 8.1 million barrels  from the Big Hill site (near Winnie, TX). The SPR plans to schedule deliveries between February 1–March 31, 2022, with early deliveries available in January if arrangements can be made.

The Congressionally-mandated sale completes the requirement of Section 30204 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 to sell a total of 30 million barrels during fiscal years 2022–2025.  All 30 million barrels have been sold with this sale and proceeds of the sale will be deposited in the U.S. Treasury by the end of this fiscal year.

Visit DOE’s website for more information on the SPR.