US begins deliveries from strategic reserve

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 23, 2026 – The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded contracts for the delivery of 45.2 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to oil companies and traders, the DOE announced on Friday.

10 million barrels will be sourced from the Bayou Choctaw SPR site, 15.7 million barrels from Bryan Mound and 19.5 million barrels from West Hackberry. The deliveries are the first under an 86-million-barrel crude oil exchange for which the DOE launched a Request for Proposal (RFP) on March 13, the initial tranche out of a total of 172 million barrels that the DOE intends to release from the SRP in 2026 and 2027.

The move aims to ease short-term supply disruption and help contain global oil prices as part of an agreement among countries in the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of crude from reserves in the wake of the US and Israeli war with Iran.

Under the terms of the swap, participating companies will pay a premium in the form of additional barrels, returning 55 million barrels to the DOE upon the maturity of the contracts.

The largest contract was awarded to Shell Trading, for 16.2 million barrels, followed by Trafigura, for 8.86 million barrels. The remaining contracts went to Marathon Petroleum (7,7 million barrels), BP Products North America (5 million barrels), Gunvor (3.09 million barrels), Mercuria Energy America (2 million barrels), Vitol (2 million barrels) and Energy Transfer Crude Marketing (375,000 barrels).

“By participating in the co-ordinated international release, we are helping ensure that supply remains reliable during a period of heightened global uncertainty. We will continue to work closely with our partners to support a resilient energy system while maintaining the long‑term strength and readiness of the SPR,” said Kyle Haustveit, assistant secretary of the Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office, upon the issue of the RFP.

The DOE oversees the SPR through the Office of Petroleum Reserves, which manages emergency crude oil stocks stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana to help protect against supply disruptions. The reserve’s four storage sites have a combined authorised capacity of 714 million barrels and are connected to major refining centres, interstate pipelines and marine terminals.

Photo courtesy of the US Department of Energy

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