NorthAmOil: Biden administration approves additional SPR release to ExxonMobil

The US Department of Energy (DoE) announced on December 30 that it had approved a third exchange of crude from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for release to ExxonMobil.
The release is part of US President Joe Biden’s strategy to help ease oil supply challenges and lower gasoline prices. Under Biden’s direction, the DoE authorised the release of 50mn barrels in total from the SPR in November, including up to 32mn barrels to be made available through an exchange, while also agreeing to accelerate the timeline for selling an additional 18mn barrels. Companies that receive SPR crude through the exchange agree to return the volumes they received, plus an additional amount that depends on how long they have held the oil.
The DoE said on December 30 that with the latest exchange, as well as two others awarded earlier in the month, it had now provided over 7mn barrels of SPR crude to boost US supplies. The department previously approved a 4.8mn barrel exchange with ExxonMobil on December 10. Argus Media reported in late December that ExxonMobil had until September 2024 to return the crude, making this the longest loan term available under a new federal programme. The super-major will return an additional 8.6% of the loan volume according to the information service.