-- The US Department of Energy has released 17.5 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve since March, as part of efforts to ease supply disruptions amid the ongoing Middle East conflict, the Energy Information Administration said in a note Thursday.
The EIA said, in its latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report, that 7.1 million barrels were released in the week ending April 24, marking the largest weekly draw since October 2022. Total SPR inventories stood at 397.9 million barrels.
"The US SPR release is structured as an exchange, which requires the original volume of oil, plus additional barrels, to be returned to the SPR within one year," said Kimberly Peterson, an economist at the EIA.
The US is currently undertaking a broader release of 172 million barrels from the reserve, as part of a coordinated initiative with the International Energy Agency to inject 400 million barrels of crude oil and refined products into global markets.
The joint effort aims to stabilize energy markets following supply disruptions tied to the Middle East conflict, the EIA said.
Established in the 1970s in response to oil supply shocks, the SPR is the world's largest emergency crude stockpile, with an authorized capacity of up to 714 million barrels.
The reserve is stored across four sites along the US Gulf Coast, a region that hosts a significant share of the country's refining capacity.