U.S. to offer 18 million barrels of oil from emergency reserve
Action to reduce fuel prices

The US Department of Energy announced Friday that it will sell 18 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve, with company offers to buy by Jan. 4, as part of a previously announced release designed to cool fuel prices.
The announcement of the sale was anticipated after the Biden government announced it as part of a broader release of 50 million barrels from the reserve in coordination with other oil-consuming countries such as China, India and South Korea. The Department of Energy announced last Friday that the sale would be announced on December 17th.
The government has attempted to address US consumer concerns about high fuel costs and inflation as they travel more, despite the few tools available to President Joe Biden to influence the price of crude oil traded in a global market will.
With the sale, the Department of Energy is accelerating an auction that was approved by Congress in 2018 to fund the government.
Oil shipments to companies in the SPR, a series of caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts, will commence February 1 through March 31, the department said.
The ministry also plans to lend up to 32 million barrels of oil from the SPR to companies that will have to return the crude oil with interest. The first batch of this exchange will include 4.8 million barrels with Exxon Mobil Corp, the largest US oil company, the department said last Friday.
Brent crude prices fell 2% to $ 73.52 a barrel on Friday as rising Omicron cases raised concerns that the new restrictions could affect fuel demand.





