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US seeks bids for 10mn bl crude release from SPR

  • Mercados: Crude oil, Oil products
  • 02/04/26

President Donald Trump's administration is offering to loan out up to 10mn bl of sour crude from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as part of a release of 172mn bl intended to ease supply shortages caused by the war with Iran.

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) second round of "exchange" contracts, announced on Wednesday, is offering 2mn bl of sour crude in April and 8mn bl of sour crude in May from the SPR's Bryan Mound site in Texas. Participating companies will be required to return the crude they borrow by no later than November 2027, in addition to providing an in-kind payment, which will result in the SPR holding more crude than before Trump authorized the drawdown.

"Today's action furthers the United States' efforts to move oil quickly to the market and mitigate short-term supply disruptions," DOE assistant secretary of hydrocarbons Kyle Haustveit said.

Bids for the second round of exchange contracts are due by 12pm ET on 6 April.

DOE already awarded a first round of exchange contracts that will release 45.2mn bl of sweet and sour crude from the SPR by the end of May. Companies awarded contracts will be required to return crude to the SPR between November 2026 and the end of September 2028.

For the second round, DOE switched to a formula that will reward companies for the early return of crude to the SPR. That will avoid a financial incentive for most of the returns to take place near the end of 2027. Nymex WTI crude futures at the end of 2027 are trading at a discount of nearly $3/bl compared to the first quarter, based on settlement prices on Wednesday.

Under the formula for the 10mn bl release, bidders will be required to return a "minimum" of 17pc more crude than they borrowed for crude returned to the SPR in the first quarter of 2027. For each additional quarter they wait, the minimum will rise by 0.5 percentage points, reaching a maximum rate of 18.5pc for crude returned by November 2027. DOE said it will award contracts primarily based on which companies offer to return the most crude to the SPR.

Trump last month granted a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act for crude and other commodities shipped between US ports. The waiver, which is set to expire at 11:59pm ET on 17 May, will enable crude from the SPR to be transported to other US ports without needing to charter US-flagged, US-built tankers that are compliant with the Jones Act.


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