Washington – The United States Department of Energy announced this Friday that it will begin to buy back crude oil to fill its strategic reserves, which are at their lowest level since 1984 after the strategy of massive sales of barrels to treat to lower the price of gasoline in the country.
The office gives until December 28 to companies that wish to participate in the repurchase to present their offers.
In total, Energía needs about 3 million barrels to be delivered in February.
In October, the administration of US President Joe Biden announced its intention to buy back the oil it began to sell as a strategy to alleviate the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on gasoline prices, once prices returned to normal. between 67 and 72 dollars per barrel.
In this way, the Department of Energy will be able to buy the barrels to reinforce its strategic reserve “at a price less than the 96 dollars on average for which they were sold,” the office said in a statement.
Barrels will be purchased at a fixed price, so the amount agreed now will not change if market conditions change ahead of February.
In March, the US government announced that it would sell 180 million barrels of crude from its strategic reserves to try to lower the average price of fuel, which hit a record of more than $5 a gallon in June, spurred by the war in Ukraine. .
In October, Biden decided to sell 15 million barrels of strategic reserves (the last of the promised 180 million), after the OPEC+ alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided to reduce its output by 2 million barrels per day (mbd). ), its biggest cut in oil supply since May 2020.
Since then, prices have moderated considerably in the country, although some Republican representatives accused the Democrat of using strategic oil reserves for political purposes due to the proximity of the mid-term elections in November.