US loans 8.5 mln barrels of SPR oil in second batch since Iran war

The US Department of Energy said on Friday it had loaned 8.48 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to four oil companies, the second allotment under the Trump administration’s effort to curb fuel prices that have surged during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The companies that have been awarded SPR loans are Gunvor USA, Phillips 66 Company, Trafigura Trading and Macquarie Commodities Trading, the DOE said. The US had offered on April 1 to loan up to 10 million barrels in the second batch.

Ultimately, the US aims to lend 172 million barrels from the SPR for delivery throughout this year and into 2027. It is part of a wider agreement with 32 countries in the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels.

The release of oil reserves is meant to control oil prices that have surged during the war, which the IEA said has led to the biggest oil disruption in history.

In the first batch from the US SPR, energy companies last month only took 45.2 million barrels, or about 52 percent of what the DOE offered.

Oil from the SPR is being released in the form of loans that companies will return with extra barrels as a premium, a system the DOE says will help stabilize markets “at no cost to American taxpayers.”