March 15,2024
The administration has so far bought back about 29.61 million barrels of domestically-produced crude oil, since the 2022 sales, it says. The DOE says it has also sped up the return of nearly 4 million barrels to the SPR from loans to oil companies.
The pace of the buybacks has been slowed by planned maintenance at two of the four SPR sites, department officials have said.
Quick buybacks of much larger volumes could also risk pushing up oil and gasoline prices ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, analysts have said. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Feb. 21 the U.S. was being careful not to do anything to remove supply from the market when prices might be high.
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The U.S., which is producing oil at record volumes with more increases expected this year, has more crude in the SPR than required as a member of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the West's energy watchdog. Under the agreement, the U.S. is required to hold 90 days' worth of net petroleum imports.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/biden-administration-slowly-puts-oil-back-into-spr-emergency-stash-2024-01-04/