ENERGY.GOV: DOE Announces Notice of Sale of Crude Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy announced today a Notice of Sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

DOE intends to draw down and sell 10.1 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR. This notice of sale is to fulfill the requirements of Section 403(a)(4) of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (5 million barrels) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 (5.1 million barrels), which combined require a mandatory sale of 10.1 million barrels during FY 2021. The proceeds of the sale will be deposited in the U.S. Treasury by the end of the Fiscal Year.

The Notice of Sale announced today includes a price-competitive sale of up to 10.1 million barrels of SPR crude. The sale will be conducted with crude oil from the following three SPR sites (maximum amount from each site listed):

Up to 5 million barrels from Bryan Mound
Up to 5 million barrels from Big Hill
Up to 5 million barrels from West Hackberry
DOE must receive bids no later than 9:00 a.m. Central Time on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. DOE will award contracts to successful offerors no later than March 4, 2021. Deliveries will take place in April and May 2021, with early deliveries available in March 2021.

The SPR is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil, and the federally-owned oil stocks are stored in underground salt caverns at four storage sites in Texas and Louisiana. The SPR has a long history of protecting the economy and American livelihoods in times of emergency oil shortages. Those include hurricanes and geopolitical events as well as times when there are oil surpluses, such as those caused by COVID-19-related demand destruction.

Any company registered in the SPR’s Crude Oil Sales Offer Program is eligible to participate in this and other SPR crude oil sales. Other interested companies may register through the SPR website’s Crude Oil Sales Offer Program.