Biden administration cancels buyback of 3 million barrels to replenish oil stockpile

The Biden administration has canceled two oil purchase plans to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the Department of Energy confirmed Wednesday.

The planned purchases were to secure 3 million barrels later this year as part of a broader goal to fully replenish SPR by the end of the year. The Department of Energy previously announced plans for the purchase, which is expected to be delivered to a facility in Louisiana in March.

“In the best interests of taxpayers, we will not award Bayou Choctaw SPR sites in August and September and will continue to solicit available capacity as market conditions allow,” a Department of Energy spokesperson said in a statement. I’m going,” he told The Hill. “As always, we are monitoring market trends to remain agile and innovative to ensure a successful replenishment approach to protecting this critical national security asset.”

The Biden administration withdrew approximately 50 million barrels from SPR in November 2021 in an effort to stabilize gasoline prices. The following spring, in response to the energy shock caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the administration announced its largest withdrawal from the stockpile ever, releasing 1 million barrels a day for 180 days.

At the time, the administration vowed to replenish the SPR based on market conditions, with the goal of buying back oil while prices were below $79 per barrel.

But at the time of the last buyback in March, when the U.S. bought back nearly 3 million barrels, oil prices were around $81 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, has soared recently, topping $85 earlier this week for the first time in six months.

The Department of Energy has bought back about 32.3 million barrels across the SPR since last year. Stockpiles of approximately 600 million barrels before the invasion of Ukraine began are now just over half, and as of April they stood at just over 363 million barrels.